ACA Connects chief touches upon key broadband industry issues

ACA Connects President and CEO Grant Spellmeye underscored the top-of-mind issues pervading the broadband industry. Unsurprisingly, the allocation of federal funds was front and center. First, ACA wants to make sure broadband funding is going where it’s supposed to be, as Spellmeyer noted the organization is “very concerned” about overbuilding using government support. The biggest pot of broadband money comes from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) plans to dole out BEAD funding to states starting in July, but Spellmeyer expects state leaders won’t begin handing out that money to operators until 2024.