Another Red Flag – the BEAD Labor Requirements

The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program grant rules established by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) are going to be a difficult hurdle for many internet service providers to cross. If you are thinking of applying to BEAD, read these rules carefully. The rules start on page 56 of the NOFO. Without trying to sound too critical, the labor requirements sound like something written by bureaucrats who are designing a hypothetically perfect labor system instead of written by folks who have ever built a broadband network and have dealt with broadband contractors. Like many of the BEAD requirements suggested by NTIA, these labor requirements greatly favor large ISPs over small ones. I think most smaller ISPs will be unable to identify contractors and subcontractors ahead of time and convince contractors to provide their history of adherence to federal law, have all certified employees, and jump through a mountain of paperwork. If I was a contractor, I wouldn’t touch a BEAD grant project with a 10-foot pole – there is plenty of other work available. I hope that State Broadband Offices push back hard on these requirements to make them realistic. That won’t be easy because some of these rules seem mandatory – but not all.  I strongly urge State Broadband Offices to sit and talk with local ISPs and construction contractors about the hurdles created by these rules – because these requirements will stop quality ISPs from pursuing the BEAD grants.