Fiber, not satellites, is the way to go in BEAD program

We believe the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program provides the best possible chance to bring robust, reliable all-fiber broadband service to the many millions of unserved and underserved locations throughout the country. That said, we understand that National Telecommunications and Information Administration may be considering permitting States and Territories to award grants to applicants using other, less capable transmission technologies where the costs to deploy networks can be extremely high. While NTIA may believe there may be select instances where fiber deployment costs could be excessive, these should be viewed as the rare exceptions to the overall approach. If we as a nation could deploy an electric wire to a location decades ago, there is no reason we cannot deploy fiber to that same location today. Regardless, even where an alternative technology may be considered, States and Territories should ensure that applications using such alternative technologies can actually perform as proposed. With millions of consumers and billions of dollars at stake, this is no time for placing bets on technologies that are not already widely available or are promising substantial leaps in performance based upon little more than vendor marketing collateral, test cases, or targeted deployments. If bad bets are placed on technological speculation or marketing hype, consumers at unserved and underserved locations will be “disserved.”