Altafiber Not Sold on BEAD
The company hasn't yet found an area it's excited about, an altafiber executive said.
Jake Neenan
NASHVILLE, July 30, 2024 – The Biden administration wants to hand out more than $40 billion in broadband grants to connect the unserved to the Internet. Some companies have been signaling they’re hesitant to participate.
The latest example is altafiber, a broadband ISP based in Cincinnati. An altafiber official said the company was still not eager to participate in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program run by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
“We’ve received hundreds of millions of dollars in ARPA and CPF and have played in that camp very largely, but so far we haven’t found an area to participate in BEAD,” altafiber’s Rob Shema told network operators at the Fiber Connect trade show here on Monday. The American Rescue Plan Act stood up multiple broadband subsidies as a response to the pandemic, including the Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund.
Shema seconded comments from Fiber Broadband Association regulatory counsel and longtime telecom lawyer Tom Cohen on BEAD’s larger slate of federal requirements – like cybersecurity plans, environmental studies, and Build America compliance – compared to other broadband funding programs like the ones altafiber has previously participated in.
The company, formerly Cincinnati Bell and owned by Macquarie Asset Management since 2021, was still evaluating participating in the program, Shema said.
“We’re looking at areas where there may be opportunities adjacent to our current footprint, as well as areas that aren’t adjacent but could become attractive when you mix in what we call ‘the extra money piece,’” he said.
Last fall, altafiber was among a slew of ISPs that flagged the program’s original letter of credit rules as being too restrictive. NTIA later issued a waiver giving states the option to loosen those rules.
Companies have taken a similar tack with the program’s low-cost option, which requires a cheaper plan be made available to low-income households on BEAD infrastructure.
Dozens of industry groups, including national groups representing major providers like AT&T and 26 state-specific associations, asked the NTIA last week to waive existing low-cost price caps set by states, calling them “unrealistically low.”
Altafiber offers fiber broadband in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The latter two have had their full BEAD proposals approved by the federal government, meaning their rules for scoring grant applications and administering the program have been largely set in stone.
Those states are still processing challenges to government broadband data and under program rules will have to select grant awardees within one year of getting those approvals, which came in June for Kentucky and earlier this month for Indiana.
NTIA will have to give those lists the go-ahead before projects get underway.
