Macon County has 50 locations covered by Missouri's approved awards under the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, known as BEAD, which funds high-speed internet for unserved and underserved locations. That is the fewest among the county and the seven that border it, according to the state's broadband progress map.
Of those 50 locations, 38 are slated for fiber service from Chariton Valley Telephone Corporation and 12 for low-earth orbit satellite service, nine from Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC and three from Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Every awarded location in the county still shows construction not started.
Gov. Mike Kehoe and the Missouri Department of Economic Development announced Jan. 8 that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration had approved the state's BEAD Final Proposal on Jan. 6. The plan awards more than $814 million to extend high-speed internet to more than 200,000 unserved and underserved locations statewide. Providers then have four years to finish their work under the program.
As of Thursday morning, the Missouri broadband map counted 197,160 awarded locations statewide, with none marked as under construction or complete. Kehoe's office said the federal review trimmed about 7,200 locations that lost eligibility after changes on the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map or after providers reported service plans during the state's challenge process.
Among Macon County and its seven bordering counties, the map shows 4,041 awarded locations. Macon County's 50 account for about 1 percent of that total. Fiber accounts for 38 of Macon County's locations, about 1 percent of the 3,548 fiber locations awarded across the eight counties.
Here is each county's awarded location count, according to the map:
- Adair: 1,016, including 958 fiber
- Monroe: 1,005, including 849 fiber
- Randolph: 639, including 637 fiber
- Chariton: 513, including 509 fiber
- Knox: 419, including 164 fiber and 222 licensed fixed wireless
- Linn: 328, including 323 fiber
- Shelby: 71, including 70 fiber
- Macon: 50, including 38 fiber
Chariton Valley, the Macon-based provider, holds most of the fiber locations in Chariton, Linn, Monroe, Randolph, and Shelby counties on the same map, along with Macon County's 38 fiber locations. Those Macon County fiber locations sit in a project the state's Final Proposal files describe as serving 44 locations in Macon and Adair counties with end-to-end fiber and $271,764 in BEAD support.
The awards cover locations the state deemed eligible for BEAD funding. They are not a count of households that already lack a home internet subscription. The Macon Chronicle reported Oct. 19 on American Community Survey estimates of household internet subscriptions in the county.