Winning Bidders Back Out of 31,000 BEAD Locations in Texas

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2026 — Another state is set to hold an additional bidding round for locations where tentative broadband grant winners back out before signing contracts under a $42.45 billion broadband expansion program. The Texas Broadband Development Office said four of its tentative grant winners rescinded their awards, leaving 31,000 homes and businesses without a planned broadband connection. That’s about 13 percent of the state’s BEAD locations. See Breakfast Club Membership Options! See Breakfast Club Membership Options “The BDO is now working diligently through a competitive federally compliant process to award those remaining locations,” BDO said in a release Thursday. “This approach will help the state and providers identify the best overall solutions for communities in need of high-speed, reliable internet access.” Nebraska made a similar announcement last week after three ISPs walked away from about 1,700 locations. Two electric cooperatives have also described handing back money in Colorado and Florida In Texas, the state said in the release it was able to sign award agreements with 17 other ISPs to serve 208,000 locations, under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. That’s nearly 87 percent of its 240,000 BEAD-eligible locations. The state said it was finalizing but had not yet signed another contract with “one additional provider” that was awarded 2,000 locations in the state. Based on Texas’s federally approved award data, that’s likely Amazon Leo, which was in line to serve 2,014 with satellite broadband under the program. “The BDO hopes to finalize that agreement soon,” the state said. The other four ISPs that were given tentative awards but not listed in Texas’s Thursday release — which appear to be the four that back out — are AMA Communications, Astound Broadband, Resound Networks, and Thrive broadband. Astound and Resound were awarded far more than 2,000 locations, while AMA and Thrive were awarded far fewer. Amazon was one of the providers that refused its award in Nebraska. SpaceX, the other major satellite ISP that competed for BEAD funding, was able to reach a deal with both states. SpaceX had asked state broadband offices to agree to exempt the company from some BEAD rules around performance monitoring as part of its award agreements, something the Commerce Department ultimately said wouldn't fly. The company told states it could be “untenable” for low-Earth orbit satellite providers to participate in BEAD if it didn't receive some of the exemptions, but has managed to come to agreements in at least Texas and Nebraska. About 23 percent of BEAD’s 4 million nationwide locations are set to be served by Amazon or SpaceX, according to a Connected Nation tally. SpaceX is in line to receive $739 million to serve 476,000 locations. Amazon had put in even lower bids and tentatively won $312 million to serve 417,000 locations. SpaceX’s final award in Texas didn't change from the Commerce-approved preliminary award. As noted by Telecompetitor, which first reported on Texas’s release Friday, the final awards listed by the state total about $1 billion, just 85 percent of the nearly $1.25 billion the state was looking to spend in its Commerce-approved spending plan. Awards signed by ISPs in the state didn’t differ significantly from the Commerce-approved awards. Those approved awards were in some cases different from the state’s preliminary awards released after bidding. Astound was in line for $165 million to serve more than 16,000 locations. Resound walked away from a Commerce-approved award of $23 million to serve more than 15,500 locations. Astound announced in March it was combining with GFiber, formerly Google Fiber. The companies did not discolse the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.