The Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT II) Program has awarded $701.9 million in grants to help provide broadband to unserved and underserved locations in the state.
BOOT II is administered by the comptroller’s Broadband Development Office (BDO). The initiative aims to bring broadband to more than 95,000 unserved locations.
Funding is available for one or two counties from each of 12 economic regions based on the percentage of locations without 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload service.
More than $424.6 million of the $701.9 million Texas broadband grants have been finalized. This covers 54,000 locations in Bastrop, Carson, Coleman, Edwards, Falls, Irion, Karnes, Liberty, Morris, Newton, Reagan, Throckmorton, and Trinity counties.
The BDO says it is finalizing for the other nine counties which, combined, will serve almost 39,000 unserved locations.
Fiber technology is preferred. Broadband grants given to Texas providers using this technology commit to providing 1 Gbps symmetrical service and unbundled, low-cost options for subscribers.
“This historic investment will ensure that reliable, high-speed broadband — critical to health care, education and economic development — is available to every person in these counties,” Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said in the announcement of the broadband awards.
“The counties selected for this program demonstrated a pressing need for broadband infrastructure investment, and this program will provide vital assistance to help these communities access essential online resources.”
Here’s the complete list of this round of Texas broadband grant awardees:
- Rural Telecommunications of America, Inc. (Bastrop County): $43,096,228 for 10,471 locations (fiber)
- Plains Internet, LLC (Carson County): $12,807,264 for 778 locations (fiber)
- Resound Networks (Coleman County): $12,794,895 for 2,239 locations (fiber)
- 4IP Technology and Media, LLC (Edwards County): $77,562,776 for 2,724 locations (fiber)
- AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC (Falls County): $48,000,000 for 5,811 locations (fiber)
- AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC (Irion County): $2,555,903 for 656 locations (hybrid)
- VTX Communications, LLC (Karnes County): $51,073,236 for 4,685 locations (hybrid)
- ITC Broadband Operating, LLC (Liberty County): $69,604,118 for 16,431 locations (fiber)
- AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC (Morris County): $25,433,000 for 1,903 locations (fiber)
- ITC Broadband Operating, LLC (Newton County): $32,991,226 for 2,698 locations (fiber)
- AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC (Reagan County): $8,663,046 for 1,624 locations (hybrid)
- AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC (Throckmorton County): $4,428,782 for 602 locations (hybrid)
- ITC Broadband Operating, LLC (Trinity County): $35,614,296 for 3,916 locations (fiber)
The initial BOOT program — the announcement does not refer to it as BOOT I — was announced during the summer. It awarded grants totaling $11.4 million for broadband projects covering 1,528 locations in 16 Texas counties.
The BDO has been active. Last week, it announced a competitive $30 million grant program to bring low earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband to rural areas of Texas.
Additional information about Texas broadband, including state funding resources, grants made, and state-specific coverage, can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
