NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, the Fiber Broadband Association and ACA Connects–America’s Communications Association today encouraged the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to “stand its ground” in prioritizing fiber projects and maximizing the deployment of fiber networks as Congress intended under the Broadband Access, Equity, and Deployment (BEAD) program amid calls for the agency to reject or weaken initial proposals submitted by some states and territories.
In a letter from the organizations’ leaders to NTIA Assistant Secretary Alan Davidson, the associations called on the agency to ensure states and territories fulfill their responsibilities to connect all eligible locations to high-performance broadband service and to prioritize all-fiber builds, as directed by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The associations explained how this vision can be realized using a data-driven analysis and taking into account the efforts of other broadband funding initiatives as well.
“With BEAD poised to deliver historic levels of funding for broadband deployment, which will in turn create untold economic, health and educational opportunities for millions of rural Americans, we simply cannot accept ‘just good enough’ service delivering the bare minimum to satisfy user demands here and now,” said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield. “Congress rightly saw the value in investing in technologies built to last, and we hope NTIA will hold fast to this vision.”
“The NTIA’s BEAD program funding is a once-in-a-lifetime investment—we’ve got to get this right. History has taught us it is a mistake to avoid ambitious metrics. If we settle again it would be detrimental to Americans’ ability to connect to high-quality broadband,” said Gary Bolton, President and CEO at the Fiber Broadband Association. “Fiber remains the most reliable, high-performance broadband technology capable of supporting our bandwidth needs for decades to come. We encourage the NTIA and all states to carry out their mission to provide the necessary, critical broadband infrastructure to ensure every community can access broadband connectivity and every American can participate in today’s digital society.”
“We’re urging NTIA to adopt metrics to keep the BEAD program on a path to success by prioritizing fiber infrastructure,” said Grant Spellmeyer, President and CEO of ACA Connects. “ACA Connects’ updated BEAD Framework is an excellent starting point for the agency to meet this goal, and we encourage them to utilize this data-driven approach. It shows that States can fund projects connecting very high percentages of unserved and underserved locations with fiber while ensuring that all eligible locations have access to high-performance broadband service, which is exactly what Congress intended when they created the program to boost broadband connectivity.”