Rural Site Acq Facing a Bottleneck

The rural broadband industry has an execution problem, not a funding problem, according to David Christophersen, General Manager of Rural Tower Cooperative. “Billions in federal subsidies are allocated, but carriers struggle to secure the rural sites needed to build infrastructure,” Christophersen said in a recent blog. 

His company, Rural Tower Cooperative, an Indiana-based agricultural cooperative, has been addressing what they consider one the major bottlenecks in rural broadband deployment: rural site acquisition. With carriers and service providers racing to meet deployment obligations under BEAD, RDOF and state broadband grant programs, industry observers say demand has outstripped supply. Christophersen points out that over $3.3 billion in RDOF defaults are attributed in part to deployment delays. 

Market analysts have noted traditional site acquisition models face significant challenges in agricultural communities. Industry data shows conventional telecom outreach converts just 3-5 percent of rural landowners to site leases, with acquisition timelines stretching 12-18 months per site. This delayed infrastructure logjam creates project delays, missed federal milestones and increased deployment costs. By connecting rural land owners to active site searchers, Christophersen said the cooperative is hoping to remedy the solution.

Christophersen said his office currently receives 40-50 inbound inquiries per week from rural landowners and aggregates 5,000+ acres (and growing) with exclusive agreements across 12 states, with concentration in BEAD and NLC-funded deployment areas. Recent member acquisition efforts, he said, show continued landowner interest, with targeted outreach in federal funding zones generating qualified leads in active deployment counties.