BEAD bonanza disappears from vendors' 2025 hopes

It was initially viewed as a "once in a lifetime" funding effort, a moonshot geared toward connecting all Americans to the Internet after the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the extent of the digital divide in the US. But, just a few years later, vendor excitement around the $42 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment program is at an all-time low. Indeed, some big telecommunications vendors are no longer counting on any revenues from BEAD in 2025. Dan Peyovich, CEO of Dycom, said his company is not anticipating any BEAD revenues during 2025. "All the potential customers that we're talking to, they're not at a place to issue the awards yet," he explained. This, of course, is due to pressures in Washington, DC, to rework BEAD so that satellite and fixed wireless providers can get more money, particularly in rural areas that are extremely expensive to reach with fiber. That redesign process could take years to play out.