Beaver Island, MI woes illustrate issues with broadband mapping

The dark purple shading shows Beaver Island has already been funded for bare-minimum broadband, locking it out of BEAD eligibility.

We've all heard the term "desert island". Well, a CBAN member is a true broadband desert island in 2024. Most of the 600 residents of the island off the northwest "coast" of Michigan are stuck with 25/3 DSL from the incumbent carrier, TDS Telecom. And efforts by local leaders to improve that broadband situation are unfortunately not being helped by BEAD.

The challenge for Beaver Island is a challenge faced in many other rural, sparcely populated areas. There is no broadband today, but a carrier has "committed" to building the bare minimum of broadband through a previous funding mechanism that essentially freezes out eligibility for any funding under BEAD. ​

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In Beaver Island's case, TDS Telecom secured funding through the E-ACAM program administered by USAC. Therefore, even though the area is still unserved or underserved, Beaver Island officials are shut out of efforts to seek BEAD funds to realize their vision - fiber to the home island-wide. And they are not alone - some estimates show that as many as a million locations nationwide are locked out of BEAD by E-ACAM funding committments.

From USAC website

The E-ACAM requirements shown above mean that it won't be for another two and a half years before even half of the island residents will have access to 100/20. And another two years beyond that before everyone has access. That is, if Beaver Island leaders were'nt so motivated to get something done on their own terms.

Beaver Island is looking at a pathway similar to some other public entities in Michigan - build a community-owned fiber network. While Michigan law requires communities to jump through some hoops to make it happen, over a dozen communities have done so successfully. In Beaver Island's case, they are examining a millage on property bills to fund the network, a similar mechanism to Lyndon Township and Beaver Island.

At the Merit Member Conference this week we talked with one of the Beaver Island broadband champions, Dick Mulvhill, about the process they have been pursuing for several years to finally get broadband to the island. By the time TDS has completed its mandated upgrade, 100/20 may be as outdated a broadband definition as 25/3 was until updated by the FCC (finally) early this year. So they will continue moving forward to make the project happen. In the words of Dick Mulvhill, "We aren't backing down."