Benton Institute Joins Broadband Experts, ISPs, and Local Leaders to Urge Biden Administration to Fix Signature Broadband Investment Program

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society joined a coalition of 300 broadband experts, internet service providers (ISPs), community leaders, nonprofits, consumer advocates, and business groups to highlight concerns about the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. In a letter to NTIA head Alan Davidson and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, the group warns that the program’s letter of credit requirement will block the vast majority of smaller operators, community-centered ISPs, and city-owned networks from securing grants. The result is that these ISPs, which are overwhelmingly the most able and willing to serve currently unserved, primarily small and rural communities the BEAD program is designed to support, will be largely unable to secure funds. By requiring awardees to post an irrevocable letter of credit equal to 25 percent of their grant award—which banks typically insist be collateralized with cash—recipients will “have to lock away vast sums of capital for the full duration of the build, likely several years,”