The BEAD Grant Dilemma

Rural counties are facing some interesting dilemmas about where to offer local support for the giant upcoming federal grant funds that will hopefully build broadband in their counties. Counties that are willing to provide local matching grants from American Rescue Plan Act or other funds may well rise to the top of the list of lists of who gets funded. I think many counties fear that nobody is going to seek the $42.5 BEAD grant funding in their county – and some are probably right. But I also think there is a good possibility that some counties are going to see multiple ISPs seeking the big grant dollars in their county. The dilemma faced by many counties is that they might not want any of these entities to win the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program grants and become the new monopoly internet service provider (ISP). Counties are rightfully leery about having some of the big ISPs win the BEAD grants, particularly the big telcos. The big telephone companies carry a lot of the blame for the poor condition of broadband in the rural areas. The question that communities are wrestling with is if they should trust the big telcos again? I also suspect most local communities are going to be leery of new investor-backed ISPs created just to take advantage of the BEAD grants.