n the face of looming changes to the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, and headwinds created by uncertainty, several state broadband chiefs said their offices are cautiously moving ahead in their planning.
At the Fiber Broadband Association’s FiberConnect conference in Nashville this week, several state broadband chiefs shared both their frustration and trepidation regarding anticipated changes to the $42.45 billion program. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in March announced intentions to “revamp” the program, including “to cut government red tape that slows down infrastructure construction.” Lutnick also signaled his intention to remove the program’s “fiber first” stipulation, which would allow states to give more of their BEAD funding to alternative technology providers, such as satellite internet service providers — a move some states are also pushing for.
However, in some states, these yet-to-be-seen changes have had the opposite of Lutnick’s intended effect to speed things along. Some state broadband leaders said the uncertainty has forced them to slow down their BEAD projects. And, while the states were expecting these changes to be released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration last month, the guidance may not even appear until July.
They feature comments from several state representatives, including Minnesota…
Bree Maki, executive director of the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development, said her state, too, pumped the brakes on BEAD. Her office wrapped its first round of the BEAD subgrantee selection process — which includes gathering proposals from internet service providers — last April, she said, but moving onto the second round has been slowed so as not to create duplicative work for vendor applicants.
“It’s more complicated than it appears on the paper,” Maki said. “But also, you know, elephant in the room, we all know that guidance is coming. So, one thing that we really considered in the state was not to move forward too fast and put our ISPs through another grant application that might have to be redone to the beginning.”