Everything You Know About Speed for BEAD is Now Moot

The June 2025 Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Policy Notice significantly rewrites the rules of the $42.45 billion federal broadband program just as states and territories were preparing to implement their plans. After the National Telecommunications and Information Administration spent over a year approving 56 unique, state-tailored Final Proposals—each shaped by the original 2023 Notice of Funding Opportunity’s emphasis on flexibility, local coordination, affordability, and fiber preference—the agency has now rescinded those approvals and issued a uniform, cost-first, technology-neutral framework that all states must follow. This change isn’t subtle. It eliminates preferences for fiber, labor standards, affordability requirements, climate resilience, municipal ownership, and other values-based priorities that many states baked into their processes. States that prioritized community-driven networks, built local partnerships, and ran extensive outreach now face immense sunk costs. They, and everyone, must start over—rescinding awards, reopening application processes, and revising scoring systems within 90 days. TL;DR? Fiber’s out, fixed wireless and LEO are in, and your state or territory’s final proposal is a paperweight.

[Dr. Alexis D. Schrubbe is the Director of the Internet Equity Initiative at the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute.]