Oregon signs final BEAD contracts with 15 subgrantees

Today marks the deadline for BEAD subgrantees to submit their signed contracts with Business Oregon's Oregon Broadband Office. Subgrantees who have fully signed contracts in place include Alyrica, Blue Mountain, City of Sherwood, County of Columbia, Consumers Power, Douglas Fast Net (DFN), E4 Connect, Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, Gilliam County, Hood River Electric & Internet Co-Op, Pioneer Connect, Siuslaw Broadband, Stimulus Broadband, Windwave, and Ziply.

Comcast, with 6,782 locations, and Starlink, with 48,631 locations, are the only BEAD awardees to not sign their contracts by the deadline. Oregon Broadband Office will continue working with both companies and NTIA on next steps.

Additional contracts for subgrantees with reassigned projects are pending approval by NTIA. These include Alyrica Networks, Amazon LEO, City of Sherwood (Sherwood Broadband), County of Columbia, Douglas Fast Net (DFN), and Stimulus Technologies.

Once a Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) contract is signed, subgrantees will transition into pre-construction compliance, environmental review, and project deployment phases.

"Signing these contracts marks the beginning of the next chapter for BEAD in Oregon," said Nick Batz, Director of Business Oregon's Oregon Broadband Office. "Our subgrantees are essential partners in turning these investments into real infrastructure and real connections. Together, we're moving from planning to construction and bringing reliable, high-speed broadband to communities across Oregon."

On September 3, 2026, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced a BEAD supplemental deployment policy notice. This will allow additional unserved locations in Oregon (and all other states) to receive access. Oregon will not start this program until it has further guidance from NTIA.