Former Trump NTIA Chief Says BEAD Shift From Fiber Possible

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2024 – The director of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program director said he doesn’t foresee major changes under a Trump administration, and that he has no plans to leave the Commerce Department agency.

But a former head of the agency administering the BEAD program – the National Telecommunications and Information Administration – said a shift away from fiber could be possible.

“Certainly, I could be shown the door, but you know, I am not planning to leave, nor are any of my team,” BEAD Director Evan Feinman said Wednesday. “The program guidelines, much of which are already in statute, are also going to stay pretty consistent. We don’t have any reason to believe at present that there’s going to be any sort of significant shift.”

Feinman is a civil servant, and not a political appointee, meaning that he and others in similar roles do not routinely tender their resignations with the beginning of a new presidential administration.

Some states are beginning to field grant applications under the $42.5 billion program, potentially shortening the window a new administration would have to tweak the rules without delaying the process.

But the program’s fiber preference has been criticized by GOP lawmakers and billionaire Trump advisor Elon Musk, who owns the satellite ISP Starlink and could benefit from more BEAD money going to other technologies.

Diane Rinaldo, acting head of NTIA during the first Trump administration, agreed something more on the disruptive end, like the reallocation of BEAD funding among state broadband offices, was unlikely. Both Feinman and Rinaldo spoke at an event hosted by Tarana Wireless.

“I don’t anticipate any of that funding gets clawed back,” she said. “I think there will be a big push to get the money out the door.”

But she said the incoming administration could be more willing to see funding go to non-fiber technologies like fixed wireless and satellite broadband. New Street Research Policy Analyst Blair Levin has written in investor notes that “it is not unthinkable” a Trump NTIA could nix its fiber preference or set a per-location funding cap, either of which would be good news for Musk.

“I can see, in a Trump administration, where they would move to more of a tech neutral approach,” Rinaldo said. “There will be a lot of oversight of the plans that are already in place and just ensuring that coverage is occurring in a timely manner.”

At least nine states have already started soliciting grant applications under the current BEAD rules, which allow states to fund non-fiber projects when fiber would be too costly or when no fiber ISPs are willing to bid for a given area. Five of those states have finished fielding applications.