Final Enhanced ACAM numbers are in: 683,000 locations off the board for BEAD

Small rural internet service providers (ISPs) had until the end of September to tell the Federal Communications Commission whether they wanted to participate in the Enhanced ACAM program. The E-ACAM program extends subsidies to these small providers through 2038, and in exchange the providers will serve all locations in their territory with 100/20 Mbps broadband, making most of them ineligible for the BEAD program. The results are in: providers electing to participate in E-ACAM cover 682,581 Unserved and Underserved locations nationally. 1.3 million Unserved and Underserved locations would receive E-ACAM offers by the FCC. The accepted E-ACAM offers cover 52.5 percent of the Unserved and Underserved locations that were made offers. How does this affect states and their BEAD programs? Well, it’s still a big change in some states like Nebraska, where 47 percent of Unserved and Underserved are part of either RDOF or E-ACAM. And it makes a big difference in South Dakota, where 31 percent of their locations will be covered by E-ACAM. But it isn’t the sea change I expected.