State broadband update: Georgia reports major federal funding, thousands of BEAD-eligible locations

State broadband officials told the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee on Feb. 14, 2025, that Georgia has assembled a mix of federal and state funding and is targeting tens of thousands of locations for high-speed upgrades.

Jessica Simmons, representing the Georgia Technology Authority, said Georgia has received a BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) allocation of just over $1.3 billion and had identified 71,776 BEAD-eligible unserved locations and 93,298 underserved locations after the statemapping and challenge process. Simmons said the statealso currently has roughly $660 million in projects already in flight from earlier state allocations (federal ARPA-funded State Fiscal Recovery Funds and a capital projects fund) and that those programs, plus anticipated BEAD awards, put Georgia close to covering the remaining eligible locations.

Simmons outlined the stateprocess: Georgia updated a mapping platform (latest iteration released in June of the prior year), ran a challenge process so providers and local governments could correct coverage…