Policyband

ACLP Study Suggests NTIA Is Steering BEAD Billions to Many Weakling ISPs

ACLP said small ISPs set to expand their markets drastically because of BEAD money may not have 'the bona fides' to meet their deployment commitments

Ted Hearn

Mar 6, 2026 — 9 min read

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BEAD: Is NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth handing out BEAD program billions to a bunch of 99-pound ISP weaklings? That just might be the case. A new report Thursday could be the first yet to identify a major structural flaw in the $42.45 billion BEAD program, perhaps resulting in defaults that fleece taxpayers and deny thousands of consumers the robust broadband service they have been promised. The report, prepared by Alex Karras and Michael Santorelli at the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School, identified 24 small ISPs that combined are set to receive $2.5 billion from BEAD under new rules established by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last June. What the two-dozen ISPs have in common is that they are not large players (in fact, some could even be called puny) and their BEAD commitments will more than double the number of locations they currently serve. Here’s an example cited by Karras and Santorelli: IBT Connect – which has just four broadband locations – has been picked to receive $111.3 million from BEAD to connect 44,906 locations. (More after paywall)