BEAD and Affordability

One of the big glaring weaknesses of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program was that the enabling legislation and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration rules made it impossible to consider affordability as a criterion for selecting BEAD grant winners. A few states tried to stress affordability during the BEAD process, but were largely shut down by the NTIA. After the Benefit of the Bargain rules, consideration of affordability went out the door, along with all factors other than the construction cost per passing. It’s a shame that overall rates couldn’t be considered in BEAD, because household incomes are lower in rural areas than in non-urban areas, meaning that affordability is more of an issue in rural areas. To me, the bottom line is that BEAD is not going to solve the rural digital divide since it focuses only on infrastructure.