Fiber Expansion Strong Despite BEAD Delays: Fiber Connect 2025

Gary Bolton, CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, kicked off the Fiber Connect 2025 conference in Nashville by pointing out two sides of the same coin: fiber internet connectivity has made great strides in recent decades, even though the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program is not progressing as quickly as hoped. The theme for this year’s Fiber Connect conference—“Light It Up”—was chosen based on the idea that, by the time of this conference, BEAD funds would have lit up the first communities in the country with fiber, he said. Bolton’s introduction to Fiber Connect wasn’t all celebration, though. He came out strongly against rumored changes to the BEAD Program that may allow low Earth orbit satellite broadband companies to provide connectivity where, in Bolton’s view, fiber should be used. Bolton made the case that the federal government should not interfere with the progress BEAD has made so far, particularly regarding the BEAD preference for fiber.