BEAD Alternative Technology Advocates Call for “Right Tool for Right Job”

The R Street Institute, a public policy research organization, focused its comments on LEO. “Emerging satellite companies, such as Space X’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, are already picking up more slack to expand the reach of traditional internet access providers. LEO broadband should be a tool in every state’s toolkit and the BEAD should support states’ use of those technologies, full stop,” it said.

The issue with LEO has been that it is so structurally different from other broadband business approaches. BEAD supports construction of local fiber and wireless networks on a state-by-state basis. NTIA must device other procedures for states to support a global network. R Street complains that the NTIA draft policy for BEAD is too narrow to accommodate LEO and other alternative technologies. For example, NTIA proposes that alternative providers offer specific data capacity to each “subscribing broadband serviceable location.” “NTIA creating this incredibly high standard with no substantiation is highly inappropriate, because the statute clearly provides the states with the discretion to set standards based on their unique needs,” R Street said.