NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield has provided three priorities for her membership to follow as they adjust to the changes in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
The tenor of the piece is that the program’s change in direction provides an opportunity to rectify errors and short-sightedness from an earlier era and to wring inefficiencies out of the initial BEAD process.
The first priority Bloomfield named is that projects be truly scalable, meaning that they meet needs when deployed and many years later. The earlier version of BEAD assumed that fiber was the preferred approach. This priority was replaced by the requirement that the selection process be technologically neutral.
Bloomfield’s assessment is that states should intensively investigate claims and use the power to control the BEAD process provided to them by the new rules to ensure the plans of those selected are scalable.
“States should put the evidentiary burden on those claiming ‘priority’ to demonstrate scalability through objective benchmarks that establish how the proposed network will not only deliver baseline performance today, but can cost-effectively scale to meet customer needs over a decade-plus — and how the network will further the use of cutting-edge technologies and use cases like next-generation wireless, AI, grid modernization, precision agriculture, and data center demand in rural America.”
The second recommendation is that existing tools should be optimized to quantify the cost of deploying networks in rural areas. The new version of the selection process eschews cost-per-location caps. Thus, a prudent way to determine costs must be devised to avoid costs that “would impose unreasonable costs on the BEAD Program.”
Finally, Bloomfield advises the organization’s membership to take a major role in defining eligibility for BEAD service. The National Broadband Map is an important tool in determining eligibility, but it has limitations. The new process gives states flexibility in determining eligibility; Bloomfield suggests that they fully exercise that capability.
Last October, Bloomfield spoke to Telecompetitor about BEAD in general and the mapping process in particular.
