BEAD promise, BEAD letdown

The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program had immense promise to close the digital divide, said Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association. But changes to the BEAD Program are weakening its effectiveness. The biggest challenge to the promise of BEAD is the revised guidelines’ emphasis on technology neutrality. While BEAD will bring broadband to many un- and underserved locations, Bloomfield believes the bandwidth they receive won’t be sufficient. And, there won’t be more resources to improve the connections. Bloomfield said the revised guidelines caused some NTCA members to consider withdrawal from the BEAD Program process. She noted that the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and its $42.45 billion provision for the BEAD Program came in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “On the heels of COVID, we knew what the consequences were for people who were not connected [to broadband]," she said. "We knew what it meant to our economy not to have those people and those businesses connected.” Bloomfield worries that the country may face another crisis that makes people realize the importance of broadband, but by that point, there will be no funds left.