Updating My BEAD Bingo Card

When the National Telecommunications and Information Administration made it clear that it was going to change the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program rules, I wrote a piece that I called, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the BEAD Bingo Card. It listed a range of options for how NTIA might modify BEAD—from canceling the program to leaving it largely intact. On June 6, NTIA issued a BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice that defines how BEAD is going to work. I would classify the NTIA’s solution as “RDOFing the BEAD process.” By that, I think NTIA adopted the worst features of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. The primary criteria for picking a winner is the requested BEAD funds per eligible location. Whoever asks for the least amount of money wins. Broadband Grant Offices can consider speed to deployment and broadband speeds, but only if a grant application is within 15 percent of the lowest bid. This feels like a one-round reverse auction. This completely tosses away the idea that BEAD would be used to build networks that will last for the rest of the century—some of the winning BEAD projects will be behind the rest of the country the second they are built. It’s clear to me that the NTIA wants to spend as little as possible of the $42.5 billion. The Department of Commerce wants to take credit for saving money and doesn’t care about getting good broadband to rural areas. This Notice has a clear message: Congress said we have to build broadband everywhere, so we’ll build what is barely adequate for today and ignore what’s needed for the future. This Notice punts the rural broadband gap down the road for the next generation to solve.