NTIA Urged to Consider Tech-Neutral Approach for $42.5B BEAD Expansion

WASHINGTON, September 11, 2024 – The Biden Administration’s $42.5 billion high-speed internet expansion program may take a more technology-neutral approach than initially expected.

That is, if the program’s governing body, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, heeds comments filed Tuesday in response to the agency’s proposed guidance on alternative broadband technologies released in late August.

Many of the comments filed Tuesday urged the NTIA to adopt a more technology-agnostic approach that would allow alternative technologies, such as unlicensed fixed wireless and low-Earth orbit satellites, to be prioritized alongside fiber under the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment program…

“Alternative technologies are the only way for NTIA to make real progress on its goal of connecting more Americans,” the coalition of stakeholders representing the R Street Institute, the Consumer Choice Center, and the Foundation for American Innovation, among others, argued in comments.

Both organizations alleged that the statutory language of the bipartisan infrastructure law that established BEAD did not mandate a preference for any specific technology, as long as the program’s speed requirements of 100 Megabit per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload were met.