State broadband officials are urging the incoming Trump administration to ensure states can move ahead with spending $42.5 billion in funding provided through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.
Nineteen states have started selecting internet providers for the program while another three have completed selections, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Seventeen more states have finished challenge processes, which means internet service provider selection should begin soon.
While state officials expect to see changes to the program in the Trump administration, they hope it is not halted entirely.
“It’s a big deal because we’ve gone through a lot over the last three years, so I’m hoping that we don’t hit pause,” Colorado Broadband Office Executive Director Brandy Reitter said during a webinar.
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Reitter, however, did say she believes there are ways NTIA could "streamline and right-size" the program, noting that the current procurement process is expensive for both states and providers. "Anything we can do to free up BEAD dollars to help with deployment by scaling back some of those regulations would be helpful," she said.
Veneeth Iyengar, executive director of ConnectLA in Louisiana, said he's "fully confident" the next administration will "do some process improvement, both operationally within NTIA but also policy-wise to ensure that shovels are in the ground faster."
Elon Musk, whose Starlink satellites enable high-speed connections in hard-to-reach areas, has criticized BEAD, and President-elect Donald Trump said on a podcast during his campaign, “We’re spending a trillion dollars to get cables all over the country, up to upstate areas where you have two farms, and they are spending millions of dollars to have a cable. Elon can do it for nothing.”
