Today, the Department of Commerce announced that it is reallocating the $42 billion set aside for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program in a manner that steers communities away from fiber internet access and towards slower, more expensive technologies like satellite connectivity – at the cost of providing reliable, affordable broadband for all Americans.
The following can be attributed to Nat Purser, Government Affairs Policy Advocate at Public Knowledge:
“Today’s decision fundamentally undermines the intent of the BEAD program and risks wasting a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build robust, future-proof broadband infrastructure for everyone.
“Congress created the BEAD program to ensure that every household could access affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband that is capable of scaling along with the country’s growing digital demand. Today’s actions threaten that mission by privileging the cheapest technologies over the smartest investments. This is not securing the benefit of the bargain for American households – it’s kicking the can down the road for another Congress and administration to solve.
“By diverting billions in funding to cheaper technologies like low-Earth orbit satellite service, which are more costly for consumers, technologically inferior, capacity-limited, and environmentally constrained, the Commerce Department is wasting public dollars on services that cannot deliver what communities need. This would constitute a historic policy failure for an administration attempting to save the public money while offering more efficient services.
“Equally troubling, this shift comes after years of careful state planning and public engagement, with states like West Virginia already having achieved full fiber-coverage in their plan – with money to spare. Reworking these plans injects more delays into the process, slows progress toward digital equity, and punishes states and providers that followed the rules in good faith, as well as their communities.
“There is no one-size-fits-all broadband solution, and our infrastructure programs must reflect that reality. We urge the Commerce Department to reconsider this move and stay the course, not force a top-down overhaul that compromises performance and value. People living in rural and Tribal communities cannot afford for us to squander this moment.”
View our recent blog post, “Slowing BEAD to Speed Up Satellites: Evaluating Trade-Offs in Rural Connectivity,” for more information on how adjusting BEAD jeopardizes the program’s ability to achieve connectivity.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.