Oklahoma will receive millions of dollars in federal grant funds to pay for the final phase of a mammoth statewide broadband internet expansion program, the head of the state’s broadband office confirmed Tuesday evening.
In an exclusive interview with The Constitution, Mike Sanders — a former Republican state Representative who has led the broadband office since 2023 — said the National Telecommunication and Information Administration gave its final approval to the state’s last-mile Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment program this week.
Sanders said the state will receive $428 million in federal grant funds. He said those funds would be combined with $146 million in matching funds from service providers. The grants would be used to connect 40,509 Oklahoma homes, businesses and Community Anchor Institutions with high-speed internet service in hard-to-reach locations.
“We will have a project in all 77 counties,” he said. “That means about 41,000 locations here in our great state, and that’s something that we are extremely proud about.”
When complete, more than 95 percent of the state will be connected to broadband internet services. Sanders said the grant funds represent the last of the federal funds for internet expansion.
“It will take four years to go through the process,” he said. “That means go through the permitting, go through the grant agreements, get these projects built and operational. Yes, this is the last of the projects that our office will administer.”
As the projects are being completed, Sanders said his agency would work to ensure connectivity.
“We have to go through, obviously, the process of the grant agreements and they agree that they will be reaching their awarded areas at this particular speed,” he said. “But we will have speed tests done. We will have folks go out and make sure they’re (the grant recipient) doing everything that they said they were going to do. So, we will have the monitoring and compliance component our office will be involved in from start until finish.”
Sanders said BEAD grants would be awarded to 24 companies, of which 18, or 75%, are local Oklahoma-based internet providers. And while this phase signals the program will be over soon, Sanders said he has faith in Oklahoma’s service providers.
‘You know, with any federal program and any grant program, there’s going to be concern. But I will say that the companies that we’ve worked with in the past have not fallen. They have not let Oklahomans down. They’ve not let us down,” he said. “There’s always going to be a little bit of concern. won’t lie about that, but again, we’re going to make sure that we deliver for the state of Oklahoma. We will make sure, as an office, that we will hold every hand possible to make sure that every T is crossed and every I is dotted.”
Once the grants are awarded, Sanders said he expects by mid to late summer the final projects to begin. Records show that more than 70% of locations served by OBO programs will receive fiber optic connections, while another 20% will be connected via fixed wireless service. The remaining 10% will receive low-earth orbit satellite connectivity.
“By early fall, I expect we will start to have ribbon cuttings across the state,” he said.
And that expansion, he said, could have a profound impact on the state.
“This marks a significant milestone in our efforts to expand high-speed internet across the state,” Sanders said. “We started with the ARPA state and local fiscal recovery fund as well as our capital projects fund and that got us to 95% coverage in the state. Now, BEAD is here to finish the job and get us close to 100% and when you factor all of that in, we’re talking over 100,000 homes and businesses. And when you think about that, you’re talking about 250,000 Oklahomans, for the first time, will have access to real high-speed internet.”
Sanders said when the program first started in 2023, there were only 16 counties that had 90% or more served with broadband internet. And today, we’ve got now 47 counties of the 77 counties that have a 90% or above coverage.
“So, by around 2030 we’re going to see, gosh, we’re going to see new opportunities for online education, economic development for rural communities, new ways for businesses to sell their goods and services, and new health care options for every county,” he said. “And I think that is what I want to really stress about. This is going to change the trajectory of people’s lives in our state for the better.”
So far, the state has received more than $1.4 billion in federal and matching funds for broadband access.