BEAD: Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment


Frequently Asked Questions:

What does BEAD stand for? 
BEAD stands for Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment.

What is the purpose of the BEAD grant? 
The purpose of the BEAD grant is designed around getting fiber broadband connectivity out to rural areas where there currently is none. The goal is to get Wisconsin 100% served.

Why would I need fiber at my house? 
Getting fiber to your home increases its value and salability. Fiber has infinite bandwidth and is not influenced by outside factors such as storms.

Why is the government giving you money for this? 
Without this money you would never get broadband out to these areas. This is evidenced by your current provider not burying fiber in your area. The revenue from services alone would never pay for the investment made to bury fiber.

What is the timeline of this process? 
The BEAD grant rounds close on June 30th. If we are awarded any areas, we need to engineer and stake them to determine where we will place the fiber in your area. Once this is complete, construction of the mainline begins. This is where the construction crews place fiber along the road right-of-way within the project area. During this time, you will receive a Permission to Bury form from us in the mail or via email.  This is a form you will fill out and detail any plowing instructions you would like for us to bury the fiber on your property to your home. Once the mainline and drops are buried, we will begin fusion splicing the fiber at all the junction points. This process takes the longest as there are thousands of burns our splicers must make to get the fiber ready for service. We then test all the fibers to ensure there are no issues.

After all of this we begin to schedule fiber installations within the home. This entails our technicians’ running wires within the home to get your services cutover onto our network. Depending on the size and scope of our awards this process could take 2-3 years to complete. Best case scenario would be to begin construction in the late summer or early fall of 2025.