The New BEAD Policy Notice: Course Correction or RDOF 2.0?

I’m going to talk about something that I imagine will be discussed at about half of the panels here—the Commerce Department’s June 6 Policy Notice laying out the Administration’s new requirements for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. While I’m sure that some of you are steeped in the details of the Policy Notice, I’m guessing that many of you aren’t. My plan is to walk you through the highlights and give my spin. Then I want to open the floor to your reactions—positive or negative. I don’t have time to hit every change, so let me touch on six of the biggest ones. Optimists believe that LEO satellite service and unlicensed fixed wireless services are unlikely to meet that standard, and in some cases might not even meet the basic speed and latency requirements. LEO service suffers from severe congestion problems, resulting in long waiting lists and high congestion fees, while unlicensed fixed wireless is dependent on the availability of unlicensed spectrum, which is no certainty given recent talks on Capitol Hill and at the FCC. 

[Gigi Sohn is the Executive Director of the American Association for Public Broadband and the Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate.]