Masha Abarinova

Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) has been the talk of the town for the past few years. The U.S. government touts the program is key to closing the country’s digital divide once and for all. Billions of dollars are on the line, so BEAD must succeed...right? I don't want to downplay BEAD's importance too much, because we'll probably never see something like it again in our lifetimes. But amid all the uncertainty about what BEAD will and won't be under Trump, there's a glaring elephant in the room.

Rural broadband providers just got a couple of early Christmas gifts in the form of regulatory relief. But whether the moves will amount to anything once Trump takes office remains to be seen. The U.S. Senate passed legislation that would essentially simplify financial reporting requirements for rural telecommunications providers.

Low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite is poised to play a bigger role in the broadband landscape come 2025, and Charter seems to be all for it. Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said although satellite broadband is even more “capacity constrained” than fixed wireless access, he acknowledged it could provide “decent service” in rural areas. Deploying satellite broadband makes sense if there’s not much financial incentive for operators like Charter to come into those markets. Charter is currently building at around “10 homes per mile” in its subsidized rural footprint, said Winfrey.

Comcast has been treading rough waters on the broadband front and it’s not going to get better anytime soon, according to Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson. Watson shared the not-so-sunny prediction that Comcast expects to lose “just over 100,000” broadband subscribers in Q4 as the market remains “competitively intense.” Watson’s remarks threw Wall Street for a loop, causing company stock to nosedive more than 8 percent. Comcast for a while has been grappling with fiber competition, tho

Nearly 30 state broadband officers attended the recent Fierce Network Broadband Nation Expo in Washington, D.C., where they outlined some of their top concerns related to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. Some of their top issues include when they will disburse funds for broadband projects, who will bid for BEAD monies, what types of technologies they’ll use to deliver broadband to unserved locations and how they’ll set the high-cost thresholds in their states. State broadband officers also talked about the cost and availability of middle-mile networks.

The Internet Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) claims public broadband providers get advantages that private players don’t and that they aren’t as efficient in building networks. Gigi Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), said ITIF’s paper hides under the rug that private internet service providers have received billions from federal and state sources, including the Universal Service Fund, the Affordable Connectivity Program, and soon from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Meanwhile, the advantages public netwo

States are itching for action on broadband access. But as they wait for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment money to flow—and policy changes under Trump—New Mexico wants to take matters into its own hands. New Mexico’s broadband office requested $70 million in state funds to help connect 95,000 locations with satellite broadband in the next two years.

The fate of the $8 billion Universal Service Fund (USF) now lies in the hands of the Supreme Court, which has the power to determine whether the subsidy program is unconstitutional. The legality issue concerns the Federal Communications Commission’s choice to delegate the administration of USF programs (Connect America Fund, Lifeline, E-Rate and Rural Health Care) to a private third party—the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). The Sixth and Eleventh Circuits have already ruled to uphold the constitutionality of the USF’s current funding mechanism.

With a new presidential administration soon upon us, a panel of broadband operators was asked what policy changes they’d most like to see. Leigh Fox, CEO at altafiber, gave a point-blank answer: “Permitting needs to be addressed.” From his perspective, it’s the one thing slowing down broadband deployments, and municipal permitting is “getting tougher and tougher,” he said. Five to ten years ago, a joint use agreement would take around 6-8 months to set up, said Fox. Now, that process can take “18-24 plus months.” Fox wasn’t the only one with permitting gripes.

Is satellite broadband a reliable method of closing the digital divide? If you were to consult the BEAD program’s rules, the answer would be no. But Donald Trump’s second term could flip that equation if the new administration determines fiber is no longer the preferred technology. Elon Musk, who owns satellite broadband service Starlink, was just appointed by Trump to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” in his second administration.