Blair Levin: BEAD dollars to flow in later than expected

The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program is poised to "provide a material stimulus" to broadband service operators with respect to government-subsidized footprint expansion, but the "dollars will flow later than originally expected," a top policy analyst predicts. It's unlikely that a "significant number" of BEAD-funded networks will become operational in 2025, New Street Research's Blair Levin explained in a research note aimed at resetting expectations for the program. Instead, Levin expects BEAD-funded networks to become operational in greater volume between 2026 and 2028. Even so, he said he expects BEAD to be "one of the biggest events in the telecom sector" in 2024 and 2025 as the government doles out $42.5 billion to help expand high-speed Internet access in unserved and underserved areas.