Trump’s broadband program overhaul favors Musk tech, strips low-cost plans

The Trump administration released revised rules for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, stripping the Biden-era effort of many key requirements and making it easier for Elon Musk’s company to win grants. Under the revised guidelines, the BEAD Program will take a technology-neutral approach to expanding broadband access rather than focusing on fiber internet. Evan Feinman, the former director of the BEAD program, said states will now have to rework their proposals again. “For some reason, [US Commerce Secretary] Lutnick, who said the program was going too slowly, wants to slow the program down much more, force states and the private sector to do a ton of extra work and spend a bunch of extra taxpayer money all so we can get worse connections to people that will cost them more every month,” he said. Drew Garner, the director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said in a statement that the changes will “cement the digital divide for decades.”