$704 Million in Tennessee BEAD Funds Requests

Tennessee’s first round of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding is off to a strong start. The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced it has received 298 applications from broadband providers, seeking a combined $704.3 million in funding—nearly the full amount of the state’s $813 million BEAD allocation.

Applications cover 174 of the state’s 178 Project Area Units (PAUs), signaling robust participation from providers of all sizes and technologies.

Big players are stepping up:

• AT&T tops the list with a request for $195.3 million to deploy fiber across 28 PAUs.
• Comcast isn’t far behind, asking for $181.5 million for fiber builds in 27 PAUs.
• Amazon’s Project Kuiper, pitching its low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite service, submitted applications for 141 PAUs, requesting $65.7 million—a move that underscores growing interest in non-terrestrial solutions.

Other notable applicants include:

• United Communications: $80.6M (fiber)
• Brightspeed: $37.2M (fiber)
• Volunteer Energy Cooperative: $27.5M (fiber)
• Spectrum Southeast: $27.2M (fiber)
• IBT Group USA: $13.9M (fixed wireless)
• Ben Lomand Communications: $13.6M (fiber)
• Greeneville Energy Authority: $15.1M (fiber)
• Zentell Telecommunications: $4.6M (fixed wireless)

This first-round demand reflects not only the scale of unserved and underserved areas in Tennessee, but also how seriously ISPs are approaching the opportunity to expand their networks with BEAD support. A mix of large national carriers, regional fiber providers, municipal utilities, and even satellite and fixed wireless operators are in the hunt—making Tennessee a state to watch as the BEAD process unfolds.