First BEAD-funded internet connections go live in Louisiana, Nebraska, with fixed wireless towers

Some of the first internet connections funded through the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program have gone live, in Louisiana and Nebraska, signaling a shift from the program’s tenuous planning phase to deployment.

Louisiana’s Bossier Parish, which is located in the northwestern part of the state, near Shreveport, was home to some of the first households to be connected to the internet via BEAD, on May 1. The connections were made by the internet service provider Nextlink Internet, which claims it “activated the first tower in the nation” funded by the BEAD program. It delivered services to 104 homes using a fixed wireless tower located in neighboring Bienville Parish, a community of just 13,000, best known for being where, in 1934, a posse led by the Texas Rangers ambushed and gunned down the outlaws Bonnie and Clyde.

Then, on Thursday, Nebraska and the National Telecommunication and Information Administration announced that the ISP Vistabeam had connected its first household to the internet through the BEAD program in the city of Ogallala, which was also brought online via a fixed wireless tower.

Though Louisiana was the first state, on Nov. 7, to receive NTIA approval on its BEAD final proposal, and it appears to have been the first to connect a residence to the internet through the program, Nebraska’s connection in Ogallala was celebrated by a visit from Gov. Jim Pillen and Arielle Roth, NTIA’s administrator. The pair visited one of the homes connected by BEAD, as well as the fixed wireless tower providing it broadband service.

“Congratulations to Nebraska on this impressive accomplishment and for demonstrating what an efficient, technology-neutral BEAD program can achieve,” Roth said at the event. “Thanks to the Trump administration’s course correction of the BEAD program and Nebraska’s strong leadership and hard work, we are accelerating broadband availability and delivering on BEAD’s mission. Congratulations to Vistabeam, Gov. Pillen, the Nebraska Broadband Office, Senator Fischer and Nebraska’s congressional delegation on this important milestone for the people of Nebraska.” 

When asked by StateScoop which state was the first, an NTIA spokesperson did not comment, but shared news release from Nextlink about its work connecting Louisiana households using BEAD money. The connections come four years after the program was created under the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.

In Louisiana, Nextlink said, the tower it used to connect the first homes was just one part of the total $18.5 million BEAD subgrant it had been awarded to connect 7,460 unserved and underserved locations across the state.

“Louisiana said we would lead the nation, and today we did it again,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said in a news release. “The first BEAD-funded tower in America is on the air right here in Bienville Parish. I want to thank President Trump, Secretary Lutnick, Administrator Roth, and our congressional delegation for the reforms that made this possible — and the team at Nextlink and ConnectLA for proving that federal dollars can move at the speed of Louisiana, not the speed of Washington. This is what a generational investment looks like when you focus on results.”

While Louisiana and Nebraska are leading the way with connecting homes and other locations to the internet using wireless towers, the ISPs contracted to do the work said they are looking to new deployments across other states. Vistabeam, which connected the site in Nebraska, said it will aim to replicate the hybrid deployment model it used in Ogallala across Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. Across the three states, the ISP won a total of $100.3 million in BEAD funding.