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NextLink seeks Lincoln County support for Nebraska BEAD application; questions raised about coverage and coordination
Summary
NextLink Internet asked Lincoln County commissioners for a letter of support for a Nebraska broadband grant application that would complement its pending Lincoln County buildout; commissioners pressed for coverage details — especially for the town of Wallace — and expressed concern about coordination with existing providers.
Ebony Cooksey, market development manager and government affairs coordinator for NextLink Internet, gave a remote presentation to the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on April 14 seeking county support for the company’s Nebraska BEAD application and summarizing NextLink’s pending and awarded coverage in the county.
Cooksey said the Nebraska BEAD funding would "complement some of the funding that we have already received, to build out in Lincoln County," and described NextLink’s approach as hybrid: a mix of fiber and wireless towers that are fiber-fed. She said areas marked as "pending coverage" on the company’s maps should be served within the next quarter and that the company has both wireless towers and some exclusively fiber projects elsewhere in the state.
Commissioners asked specific coverage questions. One commissioner pointed out that the village of Wallace appears not to be included in the state’s defined project areas and asked Cooksey to check whether Wallace was omitted from the Nebraska BEAD project list. Cooksey said she would follow up with engineers and the Nebraska Broadband Office to determine whether Wallace could be included or served by tower-host or wireless options.
A second question sought the approximate split between wireless and fiber in the county plan; Cooksey said she would get a GIS-based percentage from NextLink’s engineering team. She acknowledged that in many Lincoln County locations the company’s plan would rely primarily on wireless delivery, with targeted fiber where required by grant obligations.
Several commissioners voiced a broader concern about coordination among providers and the fairness of grant processes. One commissioner described the current mix of projects as "a hodgepodge" and said long-term incumbent providers had invested hundreds of millions and that grant-driven builds must account for existing coverage and business realities. Cooksey responded that NextLink’s work focuses on rural communities and that the company is willing to investigate specific small communities, tower hosts and other local solutions.
Cooksey said NextLink had received a letter of support from West Central Nebraska and requested the county consider either the company’s draft letter or a template provided by the Nebraska Association of Counties (NACO). The board agreed to review the NACO toolkit letter and the county’s deputy attorney will review the draft language before the board decides which template to use. Cooksey said she would provide follow-up details on Wallace and exact wireless-vs-fiber percentages.
No formal vote was taken; commissioners asked staff to evaluate the standard NACO template and the NextLink draft before returning a final decision on a county letter of support.
