This piece originally appeared in Broadband Breakfast.
The United States has committed billions of dollars to close the digital divide through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. But until recently, the program’s rules favored one technology above all others: Fiber.
That approach threatened to undercut the program’s goal of getting fast, reliable internet to every American, regardless of where they live or how hard they are to reach. Now, thanks to a long-overdue course correction from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, BEAD is finally embracing technology neutrality.
Under the previous framework, BEAD treated only fiber-to-the-home projects as “priority” investments. Other technologies such as fixed wireless and low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services, were neglected and made eligible only after fiber builds had been exhausted. This policy discouraged state officials from even considering faster, more flexible, or more cost-effective alternatives even in areas where fiber makes little sense such as the mountains of western Colorado. The result was a system that picked winners and losers based not on fiscal or practical realities but on poor assumptions.
