The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking comment on guidance that will ensure that states and territories have the flexibility to ensure the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program delivers services to difficult-to-reach and remote locations.
The guidance is complementary to the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) that aims to ensure that the $42.5 billion BEAD program adequately serves these communities.
The NTIA says that the vast majority of the country will be served by technologies that the NOFO defined as reliable. These include fiber broadband technology—which is considered the priority option—hybrid fiber coax (HFC), licensed fixed wireless, and digital subscriber line (DSL).
But there are scenarios in which these technologies are not available or will be too costly to deploy. In such cases, the BEAD program will make alternative approaches — which are not defined as reliable broadband technologies — eligible for funding.
These include unlicensed fixed wireless and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband. The status of unlicensed fixed wireless access has long been a controversial issue in the BEAD funding deliberations. The NTIA notes that geostationary orbit satellites (GEO) are not eligible for BEAD funding.
While NTIA is making room for these alternative technologies, their guidance still favors fiber and suggests an order of preference for the broadband technologies.
Regardless of whether they are defined as reliable technologies or not, all services must meet the 100 Mbps download/20 Mbps upload and 100 millisecond or less latency criteria mandated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that created the BEAD Program.
The draft guidance proposes permitting states and territories to use BEAD Program funding to reserve LEO internet capacity and to ensure necessary equipment at customers’ homes — such as antennas for fixed wireless service or terminals for LEO service — is affordable.
There will not be competition between broadband technologies not defined as reliable. “If an area is served (or will be served) by an unlicensed fixed wireless provider or LEO network that meets the BEAD speed and latency requirements, BEAD funds cannot be used to deploy another alternative technology project,” BEAD Program Director Evan Feynman said in a blog article. “This will ensure we direct limited BEAD funding to where it is needed most.”
