16.3% of Texas residents live in rural areas, the 36th highest share among the 50 states and DC. 76.8% of households have a wired plan (US: 76.6%) and 8.1% use satellite internet, above the US average of 6.9%. Texas's BEAD plan will connect 242,903 homes and businesses: 51% fiber, 22% fixed wireless, 27% satellite.
Best move: the FCC map first, then Texas's BEAD results.
- Rural residents
- 16.3%4,744,808 people · 2020 Census
- Homes on satellite
- 8.1%US: 6.9% · ACS 2025
- Homes with no internet
- 5.4%US: 6.0% · ACS 2025
- BEAD allocation
- $3.31B$3.31 billion · NTIA, June 2023
- BEAD locations
- 242,903as of November 2025
Getting the best internet in Texas: step by step
See every provider at your address
Search it on the FCC National Broadband Map and note any fiber, cable or fixed wireless provider; 76.8% of Texas homes already have a wired plan. Screenshot guide.
Check whether BEAD funded your location
Open Texas's BEAD results. The Texas BEAD Award Map shows BEAD project awards and coverage areas; for an exact check, the BEAD page's 'BEAD BSLs' spreadsheet lists every funded location by FCC location ID with its project, and the 'Deployment Projects' spreadsheet shows which provider holds each project.
Check co-op and local fiber
Start with BEC Fiber (Bandera Electric Cooperative) and GVEC (electric cooperative, South Central Texas) and run each one's address check. All 3 local builders we found.
Test the tower signal
13.1% of Texas households get by on cellular data alone (US: 13.1%). 5G home and fixed wireless checks.
Texas BEAD program: is fiber coming?
NTIA gave Texas $3.31 billion from the BEAD program in June 2023. NTIA approved the state's final plan on November 20, 2025. The plan puts about $1.26 billion into construction. It covers 242,903 locations (data as of November 18, 2025):
- Fiber 122,994 (51%)
- Fixed wireless 54,008 (22%)
- Satellite 65,901 (27%)
Texas leans on satellite more than the national plan does (27% of funded locations vs 21.9%), mostly for its hardest-to-reach places. A funded address here is likelier than average to be offered satellite rather than a line.
In Texas's latest award list, SpaceX (Starlink) holds 70,422 locations worth $120.1 million. If your address is one of these satellite locations, ask Texas's broadband office how funded locations sign up before you buy equipment. What a BEAD satellite location means.
Changes since approval
- June 5, 2026: Press report: four provisional winners backed out of about 31,000 Texas BEAD locations (about 13 percent). The state's updated subgrantee list no longer includes Resound Networks, Astound Networks Texas, AMA Communications, Thrive Broadband or Amazon Kuiper (Amazon's original award was 2,014 locations, $1,143,431.43).
- June 30, 2026: In June 2026 the BDO ran a Special Process to re-award locations released by preliminary awardees, taking proposals only from subgrantees with signed agreements; it selected eight subgrantees to serve over 27,000 locations.
- August 12, 2026: Press report: the BDO paused BEAD disbursements to subgrantees 'until further notice' after the new comptroller (sworn in 2026-08-01) replaced office leaders; the Lieutenant Governor and House Speaker had called for an audit over claims of favoritism toward Starlink. No end date for the hold was found.
- September 3, 2026: After NTIA's BEAD Supplemental Deployment Policy Notice, Texas announced a Supplemental Deployment Round (30-day challenge, a second Benefit of the Bargain round, and a plan sent to NTIA) for unserved locations that were previously ineligible.
- October 15, 2026: NTIA approved Texas' Post Award Change (submitted 2026-09-21). Updated state lists show 228,252 locations (117,001 fiber, 70,422 low-Earth-orbit satellite, all SpaceX, 40,829 fixed wireless) plus 2,178 community anchor institutions, about $1.254 billion in BEAD support. SpaceX went from 63,887 locations ($108,787,903.11) to 70,422 locations ($120,128,514.39); satellite went up, not down, in Texas.
Build schedule: Texas says awardees have four years to finish and serve every eligible location; construction was expected to start as soon as summer 2026. The state's updated project list gives estimated completion dates from 2027 to 2030-10-31 (SpaceX projects: 2028-05-30). A public BEAD Location Progress Map is promised for early 2027.
A wired build due within about a year? Skip long contracts until it lands. How BEAD builds work.
Who builds rural fiber in Texas
Each serves only part of Texas; its own address tool is the final word.
BEC Fiber (Bandera Electric Cooperative)
Electric co-op fiber internet with symmetrical plans from 1/2 gig to 2 gig, based in Bandera with a separate Llano service area; check your address on its availability page.
GVEC (electric cooperative, South Central Texas)
Local co-op selling 'GVEC Fiber Internet' with fiber lines to the home in many South Central Texas areas, with offices in Gonzales, Schertz, Seguin, La Vernia and Cuero.
Hill Country Telephone Cooperative (HCTC)
Rural telephone co-op based in Ingram offering fiber internet (300 Mbps to 8 Gbps tiers) in Hill Country and West Texas towns such as Kerrville, Junction, Mason, Sonora, Eldorado, Leakey and Fredericksburg.
Other Texas broadband programs
- BOOT (Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas) Program: Competitive last-mile broadband construction grants funded by the federal Capital Projects Fund plus state money; BOOT II awarded $623.4 million to connect 61,185 homes, 18,250 businesses and 2,191 community anchor institutions.
- Texas Broadband Pole Replacement Program: Reimburses pole owners and broadband providers for replacing utility poles to speed rural broadband builds, up to 50% of eligible costs or $5,000 per pole, whichever is less.
Good to know in Texas
- In November 2023 Texas voters passed Proposition 8, creating the Broadband Infrastructure Fund with an initial $1.5 billion; it pays for 9-1-1 upgrades, the pole replacement program and state matching money for BEAD, and runs from 2024 to 2035. Source
- Texas defines broadband service as at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload with latency of 100 milliseconds or less; the state's Texas Broadband Development Map shows where that service exists (experience.arcgis.com). Source
- Texas' original BEAD plan picked 22 providers to serve over 240,000 locations and over 2,700 community anchor institutions with $1.2 billion in federal funds and $177 million in state match; Texas had been allocated up to $3.3 billion. Source
Texas broadband office and map
Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO), Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts runs BEAD in Texas (its BEAD page) and publishes the BEAD results lookup. It handles funded locations and build schedules, not prices or sign-ups, and this site has no tie to it. Home missing from the FCC map? Challenge it.
When satellite is the right call in Texas
8.1% of Texas households already pay for satellite internet, the 16th highest share of 51 (Census, 2025).BEAD sends 27% of the state's funded locations there, against 21.9% nationally. It's the fallback for a year-round home with no wired line or funded wired build in the BEAD results, no strong tower signal, and open sky. Low-orbit vs HughesNet and Viasat.
- A funded fiber or cable build covers your address (BEAD or a co-op project) and should arrive within about a year: hold off and compare. How to check.
- Trees, a ridge or nearby buildings hide most of your sky and there's nowhere to mount the dish above them.
- The need is seasonal or short: one stay, one trip, one job. Starlink is a monthly subscription meant to stay on.
Texas next to its neighbors
| State | Rural residents | Homes on satellite | BEAD to satellite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 16.3% | 8.1% | 27% |
| Arkansas | 44.5% | 7.7% | 16% |
| Louisiana | 28.5% | 8.4% | 8% |
| New Mexico | 25.5% | 10.1% | 15% |
| Oklahoma | 35.4% | 8.3% | 25% |