Why is the Trump NTIA Slowing BEAD Down for Slower Broadband?

On April 22, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration officially delayed the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program in a notice attributed to the “Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information” (a position currently held by an acting official). "In anticipation of forthcoming programmatic changes and to ensure States and Territories have sufficient time to implement them, [NTIA]...provides notice of a programmatic waiver...granting a ninety (90) day extension to all Eligible Entities." In short, the Trump administration is going to change BEAD’s rules. And NTIA is allowing states 90 days to wait to see what those changes are. Far from accelerating broadband deployments in rural areas, this move is likely to slow down BEAD even more—just as some states are ready to complete the work and connect U.S. households to fast, affordable, reliable broadband. This is the latest BEAD delay from the Trump Administration, but it certainly won’t be the last. Since President Trump took office, no states have won approval for their BEAD plans, and even states that have completed their planning work—like West Virginia—have pulled back to wait for NTIA’s expected changes. There’s no telling for sure how long it will take for states to adjust to the Administration’s new BEAD rules, but it could easily delay broadband deployments another year or two. That’s not acceleration, that’s a slowdown of a program that Republican lawmakers have complained has rolled out too slowly.