The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative (NHEC) says it has been awarded a $5.58 million federal broadband grant to help expand affordable fiber access to the rural and underserved parts of its service territory in The Granite State.

According to a cooperative announcement, NHEC officials say the New Hampshire Office of Broadband Initiatives has awarded it a $5.58 million grant courtesy of the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, made possible by the 2021 infrastructure bill.

New Hampshire was originally allocated $196.5 million from the BEAD program (which included non-deployment funds), but the federal allocation was later adjusted to $18.6 million after significant unpopular changes by the Trump administration that eliminated affordability requirements and shifted a significant amount of funds from fiber to Elon Musk’s low-earth-orbit satellite venture. (NTIA has not yet released guidance on BEAD non-deployment funds).

NHEC’s $5.58 million chunk of BEAD funding will be used to bring 126 miles of new fiber to 2,500 homes and businesses across 23 rural communities, including Bath, Benton, Clarksville, Colebrook, Danbury, Dixville, Goshen, Grafton, Groton, Haverhill, Hill, Holderness, Lyman, Moultonborough, New Hampton, Orange, Orford, Piermont, Springfield, Thornton, Tuftonboro, Warren, and Wentworth.