LANSING, Mich. – The state of Michigan will receive $1.56 billion in federal funds to build high-speed internet infrastructure, mostly in rural parts of the state.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program provides $42.5 billion altogether to expand high-speed internet access by funding planning, cable laying, and adoption programs in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Indiana will receive $868 million, Ohio $793 million, Illinois $1 billion, Tennessee $813 million, Kentucky $1 billion and Iowa $414 million.

When congress passed the infrastructure bill containing the BEAD funding, it directed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to allocate funding to individual states based on the following criteria: a minimum of $100 million had to go to each state, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. A minimum of $25 million had to go to each territory.

Eric Frederick is the resident expert at the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity on Internet connectivity matters. He said there are about 500,000 homes and businesses in Michigan that are either underserved or unserved as far as internet connectivity is concerned, with a large majority of those being in rural areas. He said that most areas north of highway M10 – which runs east to west from the southern end of Saginaw Bay to Ludington, about 60 percent of the way up the Lower Peninsula, and including the Upper Peninsula – are underserved or unserved.

People in these areas will often rely on internet “hotspots” for a connection. For example, a given locale might have a broadband connection at the local library, but not at many residences or businesses. People might also be able to get a broadband connection via a cellular tower, however, he said these connections are less reliable than those obtained via a “wire,” a fiber optic cable that has been laid in the ground.

He also noted people can get a high-quality broadband connection via satellite, however, a Starlink satellite connection costs $120 per month, substantially more than the average cost of a broadband connection.

“The cost of satellite service is really cost prohibitive and it is also not available in some places,” Frederick said. “A lot of the places that we’re looking to build in involve the laying of fiber cable. With the funding that we’re going to get, I believe we are going to be able to lay fiber cable to the vast majority of the state. Earlier this year we did a statewide tour about this, and we heard a lot from the state’s farmers. We heard a lot from the rural community about their needs. We are planning on making sure that a farm business per se is connected to the internet, not only the farm residence.”

Frederick said that these funds will begin to be distributed to communities in 2025 and that virtually everyone in the state will be connected to the internet via a high quality broadband connection by 2030. For those who are interested in getting more details about the BEAD program, go to the NTIA web site, https://www.internetforall.gov/.