Nebraska’s broadband plan: squandering $405 million for rural high

If there were a trophy for squandering opportunity, Nebraska would already have it on the shelf.

On Sept. 3, the Nebraska Broadband Office, or NBO, released its draft final proposal for how to spend $405 million in federal broadband funds. Advocates for rural broadband like myself fought hard for that money, challenging providers’ overstated coverage and identifying tens of thousands of missing locations.

The federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, or BEAD, promised to fix rural broadband in Nebraska once and for all. Instead, NBO fumbled. Out of $405 million, the plan spends barely $43 million and connects fewer than 1,300 locations to fiber broadband. More than $350 million is left untouched, likely to go back to D.C. without benefiting our state. That’s not planning. I