Internet service giants Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) jumped in line with counties submitting bids for federal BEAD dollars to expand broadband nationwide by 2030. In Pennsylvania, contract awards for broadband expansion were anticipated before the end of 2025. That’s delayed as the federal government rethinks program guidelines.
Pennsylvania is already challenged by difficult topography that complicates improved internet service and the state’s prevailing wage requirements will drive up broadband expansion costs, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Commerce Department has not said when the new rules will be issued; however, New Street Research believes it could be June or July, Inside Towers reported.
In the meantime, Fayette County, where about 8,000 locations have poor or no internet service, is among the rural parts of Pennsylvania that are eager for expanded broadband, Commissioner Vince Vicites said. “We have a really good plan and we’d like to move forward. We’re going to make this happen one way or the other.”
Some 160,000 homes and businesses in Pennsylvania don’t have adequate broadband service and therefore are eligible for BEAD-funded internet connections. Pennsylvania’s share of the $42.45 billion federal program is $1.16 billion, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
But the rollout of Internet for All is hobbled by administrative delays, and in Pennsylvania, burdened by higher labor costs when compared to many other states. The federal government approved the first part of Pennsylvania’s internet expansion plans in 2024, and in January, the state closed its first round of project bidding for broadband projects. But the state is taking a wait-and-see approach to getting final approval from the federal government for getting everybody online.
Complicating Biden’s Internet for All rollout in Pennsylvania is the state’s prevailing wage requirements, which were enacted in 1961. The law requires workers on government-funded contracts to get paid at least the wages set for various job classifications by the state Department of Labor & Industry (L&I). L&I classifies fiber optic installers as “electric linemen,” the same workers who handle high-voltage power lines high atop utility poles, even though cable workers face fewer perils on the job.
The Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania, a Harrisburg-based trade group, says the L&I’s job grouping is incorrect; a more accurate designation could lower broadband project costs by over 50 percent, allowing the state’s broadband expansion dollars to go further.
Hickory Telephone Co., which traces its roots to 1904, was among the small companies submitting bids for BEAD money to expand internet access, but CEO Brian Jeffers said the company would have to see the government’s revised rules before deciding whether to bid again. “Getting the application together was not cheap; it was a lot of work,” Jeffers told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His company proposed extending service to a couple hundred locations in Washington County. “And it’s not for us, it’s for the people who need broadband and they need it now,” he said.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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