Pressure mounts for NTIA to waive Infrastructure Act “Buy American” rule for internet service providers

A key provision in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs ACT (IIJA) calls for funding for broadband and other projects to go toward those which use products and materials containing primarily domestic-made components. But a growing number of broadband groups and vendors have told the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that’s just not realistic. Back in January 2022, the NTIA put out a call for comment on how it should implement the broadband grant programs through which more than $48 billion in federal funding will flow. Several prominent broadband groups, including USTelecom, NCTA – The Internet and Television Association, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association and the Telecommunications Industry Association, quickly chimed in and flagged the so called “Buy American” clause as a problem. They pressed the NTIA to waive the requirement. That request has since been seconded by an array of additional parties, including the likes of Cisco, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Samsung, WISPA, the US Chamber of Commerce, INCOMPAS, the Telecommunications Law Professionals and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition. The IIJA requires products used for broadband deployments to contain at least 55 percent domestic content. But as Cisco noted, though broadband equipment including switching, routing, transport and access gear is “largely developed and designed in the US, it is not manufactured in America by and large.” That means “it will not be possible for NTIA, eligible entities and subgrantees to procure the broadband equipment they need to build the networks envisioned in the IIJA on the timelines that the law requires while meeting the 55 percent domestic content threshold,” Cisco wrote.