Broadband Breakfast on October 23, 2024 - Satellite Broadband and BEAD

In 2022, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program largely excluded satellite broadband from its Notice of Funding Opportunity, due to reliability concerns over the technology's nascent state. But recent guidance from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has cracked the door open, allowing alternative technologies like satellite broadband to compete for BEAD funding in high-cost areas - provided they can meet the program’s performance standards. How will fiber and wireless projects be impacted? How will the BEAD program be affected?

Panelists

• Gary Bolton, President & CEO, Fiber Broadband Association
• David Zumwalt, President & CEO, WISPA - Broadband Without Boundaries
• Brian Allenby, Senior Director of Program Operations, Maine Connectivity Authority
• Martin Marshall, Senior Sales Engineer, Eutelsat OneWeb
• Other panelists have been invited
• Ted Hearn (moderator), Managing Editor, Broadband Breakfast

Gary Bolton serves as president and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association. Prior to FBA, Gary held executive management positions at two successful venture-backed high-tech start-ups as well as at large publicly traded companies.  Gary served 12 years as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and holds an MBA from Duke University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

David Zumwalt is President and CEO of WISPA – Broadband Without Boundaries. WISPA represents the interests of innovative, often small ISPs that provide fixed wireless, fiber and other connectivity solutions to consumers, businesses, first responders and community anchor institutions in the digital divide. Prior to WISPA he served as Chief Operating Officer of Broadband VI, a major Internet Service Provider in the US Virgin Islands. He also served as the Executive Director of the University of the Virgin Islands Research & Technology Park, an instrumentality of the USVI government formed to establish and grow a vibrant knowledge-based sector in the Territory’s economy. David also founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Dallas-based CNet, Inc., a leading provider of radio frequency (RF) engineering and operational support system software and services to the worldwide wireless communications industry, securing significant customer relationships in forty countries.

Brian Allenby is Senior Director of Program Operations at Maine Connectivity Authority where he works towards universal, affordable, access to high-speed internet connectivity for everyone in Maine.

Ted Hearn is Managing Editor of Broadband Breakfast. He is also Editor and Publisher of Policyband, a new website dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the broadband communications market. A former communications executive and reporter for newsletters and trade journals, Hearn has decades of experience with traditional video and broadband industry trends, regulatory developments, technology advancements, and market dynamics.