The Importance of Spending Federal Funds to Build Broadband Right the First Time

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress established a preference for “priority broadband projects,” defined as projects providing broadband service that meet high performance standards, can scale with consumer and business needs over time, and will enable the deployment of 5G and other advanced services. After receiving input from a wide range of parties, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) determined that “end-to-end fiber optic facilities” were the only platform that satisfied these requirements and warranted such a priority. This is not to say that other technologies cannot and will not receive Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funds, but consistent with the calls of Congress, the program aims first and foremost to support fiber-to-the-home deployments to the greatest extent possible. States and territories will establish a “threshold” of project costs at which the fiber priority ceases. The importance of setting this “extremely high-cost threshold” properly cannot be overstated. BEAD risks becoming a broadband funding failure if unserved Americans are still standing around in 2030 wondering why taxpayer dollars were used to build networks that might have been marginally acceptable at best in 2023 rather than investing in critical infrastructure for the long-term. NTCA and the Fiber Broadband Association have therefore called upon NTIA and the States and Territories to make sure that the extremely high-cost threshold is set in a way that matches the vision of Congress to build broadband right the first time. Similarly, it will be important to define the areas for which BEAD funding can be applied in a way that does not undercut the participation of smaller providers or the clearly stated goal of connecting as many as possible to fiber.