Oregon draft BEAD Five Year Action Plan: Federal allocation insufficient to attain universal FTTP

The Oregon Broadband Office has posted its draft Five Year Action Plan required by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program authorized by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The program mandates states develop the plan this year including “a comprehensive, high-level plan for providing reliable, affordable, high-speed internet service throughout the (state) including the estimated timeline and cost for universal service.” Additionally, the plans must include an estimated timeline and cost for universal service and planned utilization of federal, state, and local funding sources to pay for it.

The draft plan indicates Oregon would need nearly five times its $689 million BEAD allocation to build universal fiber infrastructure at an estimated cost of $3.3 billion deployed over a five year period.

“Long-term planning is likely to require additional federal and state funding beyond the BEAD funding because the cost estimate for universal service under a universal fiber-to-the-premises model…exceeds NTIA’s BEAD allocation,” the draft plan states. “In the interim, the state will plan to use its BEAD allocation of $688,914,932.17 in the most cost-effective manner by using a mix of technologies.” The draft plan’s estimate for universal fiber to the premises (FTTP) infrastructure includes a total of 26,347 miles of new fiber construction reaching 158,152 locations. That is estimated to be 71.9 percent underground infrastructure and 28.1 percent aerial using existing poles.

While BEAD program guidance prioritizes FTTP given its reliability and technical flexibility to expand to accommodate future demand, the guidance allows use of non FTTP infrastructure in areas states designate as extremely high cost that exceed a state designated threshold for subsidy dollars to connect eligible locations. Those include hybrid fiber-coaxial cable, digital subscriber line (DSL) technology and terrestrial fixed wireless utilizing entirely licensed spectrum or using a hybrid of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. According to the draft plan, Oregon intends to award its federal BEAD allocation “to potential subrecipient partners to achieve universal service.” The draft plan states Oregon “will look to maximize this allocated funding through a mix of technologies to serve as many Oregonians as possible.”