Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program

With Election Day in the rearview mirror, the U.S. is considering what a second Donald Trump administration means for the country. For the broadband industry, that means wondering what will happen with the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The long and the short of it? The biggest influence on BEAD could come from outside the government.

When president-elect Trump is sworn in for his second term on January 20, 2025, his administration will take over wireless policy. What analysts say we should expect: 

Comcast’s CFO Jason Armstrong said that two years ago the company used to increase its broadband footprint by passing 800,000 more homes per year, but now it’s pacing at around 1.2 million new homes passed yearly. Armstrong recently reiterated what Comcast executives have been saying for several quarters now—that fixed wireless access (FWA) and fiber are its two key competitors in terms of technology. Jason Livingood, VP of Technology Policy, Products and Standards with Comcast, said the company has been focused on building in rural areas over the last couple of years, and Broadband Equity,

Across the country at federal, state, and industry association meetings there are dire warnings being issued that the cost involved on getting onto poles is going to be a huge hindrance to the implantation of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants. Everybody who is talking about this is right, but this is not a new topic—we’ve been talking about this for decades. Now that we are on the eve of finally seeing broadband offices reviewing BEAD grant applications, these warnings feel like too little too late for me.

On October 31, NRECA sent a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration expressing concern about the potential for BEAD funds being used to overbuild locations with fiber-to-the-home connections. CEO Jim Matheson wrote "As state broadband offices begin opening BEAD application windows and evaluating proposals, I write to express concern about the potential for BEAD funds being used to overbuild locations with fiber-tothe-home connections.

Cox Communications has a beef with the Rhode Island broadband office. The operator fears Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funds will be used to overbuild its network in areas of the state that it said it already adequately serves.

Amazon is applying for federal funding for broadband Internet providers. And that, according to the CEO of equipment supplier Calix, shows that Amazon is "the wolf in sheep's clothing." "They are applying for BEAD to compete with all of our customers," said Calix CEO Michael Weening. Amazon, Weening said, is "the enemy of every broadband provider out there." BEAD is the Biden administration's Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, and it's designed to funnel $42.45 billion through US states for broadband networks in rural areas.

There has been a lot of chatter in the broadband industry recently, particularly as the election approaches, about whether the speed with which Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding is rolling out is too slow. But Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, said the timeline doesn’t bother her too much. “There’s been enough money flowing into the system that I’m not concerned that it’s taken three years.” Bloomfield named two primary reasons why the BEAD funding process so far has been worth the time spent.

For Nevada, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program will essentially be the third and final phase of a plan to make high-speed service available to everyone in the state, explained Brian Mitchell, broadband director for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT). That final phase will be funded not only through the $417 million in BEAD funding coming to the state but also through other sources. Phase Three of the three-phase High-Speed Nevada initiative aims to make high-speed broadband available to the 53,000 unserv

As states begin to receive their allocations from the $42 billion federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment or BEAD program, Florida is leading the way in preparing the workforce needed for new high-speed internet networks. State officials were quick to convene industry stakeholders as part of their broadband planning process last year, and the state’s BEAD proposal has an unusually detailed section on workforce readiness.