BEAD isn't the magic wand that will fix broadband

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. Millions of Americans already have access to broadband that's either unaffordable or just frankly, sucks. It's not just the far-flung rural areas we need to worry about. Urban communities have more than their fair share of broadband affordability problems. In Philadelphia, for example, 29 percent of the population doesn’t subscribe to home internet. If we can't even get the job done in big cities, I'm not liking our chances with BEAD. We need to address broadband affordability now, and honestly, I think reviving the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is our best shot.