'Buy America' restrictions could bog down BEAD

Strict "Buy America" requirements for government subsidy programs such as BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) threaten to significantly delay broadband network rollouts in rural areas if flexible waivers on those restrictions are not included, several industry organizations and industry watchers are warning. The Buy America policy, if strictly enforced, "could cause significant delays in actual deployments such that, for all practical purposes, it will cease to be relevant to the [broadband providers] or the communities the federal government sought to assist," New Street Research analyst and former Federal Communications Commission official Blair Levin said. Levin points out that there are "many critical elements" of those networks that, while a small part of the overall budget, "are essential and cannot in the near term be sourced from American manufacturers." Joint comments filed by the NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, ACA Connects and INCOMPAS echoed similar concerns. Those were filed in response to the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB's) request for feedback on its guidance to implement the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which includes BEAD. Under the currently proposed BABA requirements, materials such as fiber optic cable and polymers used in fiber optic cables would fall under the restrictions. There are also concerns that products such as routers, switches, and gateways – required elements for broadband networks – use numerous components that are sourced primarily from China or Taiwan and could fall victim to BABA requirements.