Since Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s arrival at the helm of the Commerce Department, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program has gotten a bit off track. 

In recent days, a fact sheet of sorts has been circulated, ostensibly authored by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), claiming to “debunk lies” by “swampy special interests” about BEAD. The document is in response to concerns among industry the public interest community that the administration has again changed the rules for a $42.5 billion program, established by Congress back in 2021, aimed at ensuring everyone has fast, reliable, affordable internet access. 

The sheet insists that the NTIA, under Secretary Lutnick, is “restoring integrity” and looking out on behalf of the taxpayers by making sure we get the “benefit of the bargain,” as he likes to say. I do not think he is succeeding at these aims.

The BEAD Program came to be because the COVID-19 pandemic made it abundantly clear that everyone in the country could not get online. Many people couldn’t afford to pay for a monthly subscription. And millions of places lacked the infrastructure, mainly because the costs to build networks in some places are more expensive than the money a private provider could recoup. The federal government had done smaller interventions before, made some progress, but we still saw some areas, the most expensive to connect, remained disconnected. BEAD is a significantly larger investment intended to address this persistent problem, explicitly prioritizing unserved locations. Albeit slowly, the program progressed with states in the driver’s seat planning how they should solve the problem.

First, there was a pause. In March, the Secretary announced a “rigorous review” of the program. This came at a moment when states were getting close to submitting their final proposals to NTIA, having already decided who would build networks, where, how, and when. West Virginia’s plan was all done and all fiber. 

States and broadband providers, to say nothing of the people who still didn’t have decent home internet service, waited for the next three months, bracing for changes to the program’s rules, unsure of how much of their work was about to be undone. In June, new guidance was announced, requiring states to redo their plans and run a new round of “tech neutral” bidding—all in 90 days. 

The 90-day window expired last week, and states began publishing their final proposals in line with the new rules.

Due to the Administration’s emphasis on deploying cheaper technologies (but not more affordable service), early analysis shows that some states are relying more heavily on satellite and fixed-wireless technologies to connect as much as 90 percent of their locations. 

However, a new hurdle has been thrown up by the NTIA leadership.

Although there is no public announcement (yet), NTIA leadership is now requiring states to run another round of “Best and Final Offers” for some of the most expensive locations to connect and to do so in 72 hours. 

Secretary Lutnick, to his credit, has been quite clear about why. He wants to bring these essential connections to rural America on the cheap. Saving taxpayer dollars is a laudable sentiment in general, but not at the cost of what these federal investments were supposed to accomplish. 

Congress created the program to fix a persistent problem that was not being solved by the private sector. Congress prioritized unserved parts of the country, by definition the ones most costly to serve. And Congress empowered states to direct this work because states would understand the needs of their communities better than NTIA leadership in Washington, DC. 

But by insisting on driving down BEAD outlays, Secretary Lutnick is not securing a good bargain.

Satellite internet networks were providing service in all these areas before the BEAD Program was even created by Congress. How is it a bargain to spend money on networks that weren’t getting the job done before BEAD? Is it a bargain to spend billions, but still be stuck with bad broadband? 

And a bargain for whom? While Secretary Lutnick is celebrating “savings” from the program, the people who live in the hardest-to-connect areas, areas that are largely rural and remote, will end up with bigger broadband bills for satellite connections. Furthermore, while the law says providers that are using federal funds to build their network have to offer a cheaper subscription plan (seems fair since taxpayers are collectively investing in these networks), Secretary Lutnick took away states’ ability to establish any standards or oversight of those plans.

NTIA’s consistent lack of transparency and clear direction is not helping matters. The June policy notice deferred guidance on“non-deployment,” the work of connecting people not related to digging trenches or erecting poles. That guidance has yet to materialize. In June, NTIA said it had no price caps, but a leaked document with state-by-state numbers refutes that claim. 

Continuously shifting goal posts, improvising rules (the June policy note came with an FAQ revised 15 times!), and watering down the real purpose for which funds were appropriated are not the hallmarks of a government program being run efficiently or with integrity. 

This is no way to run a railroad, and no way to connect Americans to the fast, affordable, reliable internet we need.

Dr. Revati Prasad is the Executive Director of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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