Jim Matheson

On October 31, NRECA sent a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration expressing concern about the potential for BEAD funds being used to overbuild locations with fiber-to-the-home connections. CEO Jim Matheson wrote "As state broadband offices begin opening BEAD application windows and evaluating proposals, I write to express concern about the potential for BEAD funds being used to overbuild locations with fiber-tothe-home connections.

In a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) expressed concerns about the Federal Communications Commission's new National Broadband Map and urged the NTIA to provide states with flexibility in determining locations and areas eligible for funding in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) send letters to both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees asking for a portion of the $10 billion for infrastructure in the just announced budget agreement, for the FY18 Omnibus bill and FY19 spending bill still being developed, to be designated for rural broadband. Specifically, NRECA requested that at least $2.5 billion of those funds dedicated to rural broadband, and to fund that effort through the US Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service, using a “level playing field” approach that would ensure electric