Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute

 A public-private partnership (PPP) that uses public resources (e.g., grant funds) to leverage the expertise of private firms (e.g., established ISPs) is the most effective way to extend broadband networks into unserved and underserved areas. Across the country, states are increasingly relying on PPPs with incumbent ISPs to close digital divides and will likely continue to do so as BEAD funds are doled out. PPPs are governed by contracts, allowing parties to ensure that priorities, timelines, budgets, and other parameters of a project are memorialized and legally protected.

The Trump administration has an opportunity to unshackle the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program from bureaucratic micromanagement and turbocharge investment of these funds in new broadband networks. Doing so will help to efficiently and quickly close the United States’s digital divide, which has lingered for decades and disproportionately impacted rural households.