Fierce Telecom reports on BEAD’s low-cost service requirement after the sunsetting of the national Affordable Connectivity Program world…

Lawmakers are butting heads over a provision within the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program that allows states to require low-cost service options from participating service providers. Democrats are calling it an affordability policy. Republicans say it’s heavy-handed government regulation.

The provision came up more than once during a May 15 hearing in the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, which was meant to focus on the 2025 budget for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

As part of the BEAD planning process, the NTIA is considering each state’s definition of a low-cost option, provided that it meets the standards laid out in the program’s statute. The agency has already approved some state BEAD plans that set $1 as the amount for a required low-income service option.

NTIA head Alan Davidson said he thinks that process is “consistent with the [BEAD] statute which required a low-cost option.”

However, in her remarks Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said that it amounts to the NTIA “allowing and even encouraging” states to conduct rate regulation. She argued that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which governs the BEAD program, “explicitly states” that NTIA is not authorized to regulate rates charged for broadband services.