By Shelby Shank
Field Editor

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar awarded $18.5 million to 17 counties across the state as a part of the Texas Broadband Pole Replacement Program.

The funding will support the deployment of broadband to rural areas by partially reimbursing grant awardees who’ve replaced more than 11,000 poles that support retail broadband services.

“Our agency is awarding this critical funding under our legislative directive to connect every Texan to broadband service,” Hegar said. “Ensuring all Texans have access to reliable, high-speed internet is important for Texas’ continued economic growth and prosperity.”

Awardees include Bartlett Electric Cooperative, Charter Communications, United Electric Cooperative Services Inc. and MidSouth Electric Cooperative.

The counties that are served by these awardees are Anderson, Bell, Bowie, Delta, Erath, Franklin, Grimes, Henderson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Madison, Milam, Sabine, San Augustine, Van Zandt and Walker.

To receive funding under the program, awardees were required to prove they were able to remove and replace existing poles that could support broadband speeds of at least 25 megabits per second for downloads and three megabits per second on uploads. The average new pole funded by this award will provide speeds of 1 gigabit per second or greater, according to Hegar’s office.

Funding for these new poles comes from Proposition 8, which passed in November 2023. The proposition dedicates $75 million to the Pole Replacement Fund.

This initial round of poles was the first funds awarded through the Pole Replacement Fund. Another $729 million from the federal Capital Projects Fund and the state Broadband Infrastructure Fund could bring online 20% of all Texans without broadband access.

For more information about efforts to broaden broadband access, visit BroadbandForTexas.com.