Nebraska’s Broadband Plan: Squandering $405 Million in Record Time

Guest Editorial by Gage County Supervisor Emily Haxby If there were a trophy for squandering opportunity, Nebraska would already have it on the shelf.On September 3, the Nebraska Broadband Office (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’ over-stated coverage and identifying tens of thousands of missing locations. The BEAD program 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, destined to go back to D.C. without benefiting our state. That’s not planning, it is malpractice.Fiber is permanent infrastructure. It is reliable, weatherproof, and built to last for decades. It is the backbone of education, healthcare, precision agriculture, Artificial Intelligence, manufacturing, and remote work. NBO’s alternative? Fixed wireless and satellite. They have their place, and they aren’t inherently bad solutions for rural connectivity. But their performance, reliability, and future scalability pale in comparison to fiber. Relegating over 10,000 rural homes and businesses to second-class broadband is a disservice to every Nebraskan. This is a patch job, not progress.Betting Nebraska’s future on them is like renting a tent in tornado alley and calling it a house. It’s not infrastructure. It’s a liability. NBO claims Nebraska’s Proposal is “connecting homes, businesses, and community anchor institutions.” Optimistic, but only half-true. More than 700 schools, libraries, fire departments, and health centers were identified as eligible for BEAD’s CAI funding. NBO chose to connect only 54. We aren’t connecting people, we are abandoning them. NBO’s biggest misstep was their handling of location eligibility. Nebraska started with nearly 30,000 eligible locations. Then NBO let unlicensed wireless providers claim coverage without proof. No maps. No evidence. Just “trust us.” Overnight, 7,500 locations were suddenly reclassified as “served.” Add in federal map changes, and Nebraska lost 52% of its list. Most states didn’t cut any. Then there are the satellites. NBO is spending $2.3 million on Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a service with zero customers and a handful of test satellites in orbit. The Proposal is trusting Jeff Bezos’ hobby project to serve 1,500 Nebraskans. SpaceX’s Starlink, which already covers Nebraska, gets another $2.5 million to serve places it already serves. This internet is meant to power a campsite not an economy. Transparency is nonexistent. Since September 3, NBO has revised its project list three times, each time cutting funding for schools and libraries with neither explanation nor notice. Just moving numbers around while the public and providers are left in the dark. Meanwhile, our neighbors are lapping us. Iowa and Kansas, with the same “flat and treeless” terrain Nebraska used as an excuse, each connected 50% of their locations to fiber. Wyoming and Montana, with far tougher topography, managed two to three times Nebraska’s fiber commitment. North Dakota? 93% fiber. Nebraska? Dead last. We are an outlier in the worst way. Yes, the rules changed and yes, it made the job harder. But their job is not to roll over when Washington makes things difficult. Their job is to fight for Nebraskans, and instead they folded. That is not leadership. That is surrender. Excuses might make the politics easier, but they do not bring lasting infrastructure to our farms, schools, businesses, and families. If other states can push back and still commit to fiber, Nebraska could too, if our leaders actually cared enough to fight for it. Our state’s chance at full connectivity is fading away before our eyes. Nebraska is set to leave more than $350 million on the table and lock rural communities into second-rate service for decades to come.Nebraskans didn’t fight for $405 million to watch it evaporate. Fiber is the gold standard, and we deserve leaders with the backbone to deliver it. Anything less is a betrayal of every family, farmer, business, and student left behind on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Janice Janine "Jan" Schell

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