Johnny Kampis: Texas Tells NTIA to Loosen BEAD Barriers to Deployment
Those seeking to eliminate some of the onerous regulations are more likely to bend the ear of the Trump administration.
Johnny Kampis
Texas is pushing back on policies set by the previous administration for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, hopeful that the Trump administration will tweak the program.
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar sent a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, last month, calling on federal officials to change requirements for BEAD. Hegar mentioned such issues as the low-cost pricing requirement, preference for fiber, and prevailing wage mandates. Texas will receive $3.3 billion of the $42.5 billion in taxpayer money allocated toward the program, and Hegar wants to ensure that money is used wisely.
“I believe certain 'nonessential' requirements exceed the program's original intent and unnecessarily complicate its implementation,” Hegar wrote.
In addition to the federal funds, Texas voters approved $1.5 billion for broadband development in 2023, with state lawmakers looking to add another $2.5 billion for internet in 2025.
Many in the telecom industry battled the National Telecommunications and Information Administration over the rules that agency imposed on the program during the Biden administration. Those seeking to eliminate some of the onerous regulations are more likely to bend the ear of the Trump administration. Arielle Roth, Trump’s pick for new NTIA administrator who has served as the telecom policy director for the Senate Commerce Committee and advisor to Cruz, has already stated that BEAD should be more open to alternative technologies to fiber.
Hegar said that limiting the usage of such technologies as satellite and fixed wireless for BEAD would limit participation in the program and delay deployments.
“Expanding the use of alternative technology for additional high-cost areas may decrease time to deployment, increase locations served, and reduce costs,” he wrote.
Greg Conte, director of the Texas Broadband Development Office, told the Texas Tribune that the office does not want to set prices.
“We didn’t feel like we’re in the right place to set that standard across the state,” Conte said. “We want the affordability piece too, but we wanted to do it more in an industry-focused manner rather than us telling the industry what they need to charge for their product.”
Texas was one of several states that battled the Biden administration NTIA over the low-cost mandate, and the Lone Star State was the last to have its BEAD plan approved by the federal agency. Hegar argued in his letter that the 11-month review by NTIA was “unnecessarily protracted.”
As the Taxpayers Protection Alliance previously reported, although every state and territory had submitted their BEAD proposals by the end of 2023, only 16 of those had been approved by the NTIA by August. The sticking point for most non-approvals seemed to be those states seeking not to regulate broadband rates.
Led by the R Street Institute, TPA co-signed a letter to then Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in October 2023 calling on her agency to stop NTIA’s attempts at rate regulation, noting that states sought the flexibility not to implement broadband price controls as the law intended.
The NTIA under President Biden engaged in other BEAD overreach, TPA and other organizations have argued. Hegar noted some of these in his letter to Cruz, including strict federal environmental and historic preservation permitting rules, the letter of credit requirement, and workforce development mandates.
“These requirements often are seen as outdated, redundant, and politicized,” Hegar wrote. “Removing them may significantly decrease time to deployment and reduce administrative complexity.”
Cruz and other Republicans have expressed an interest in rolling back some of the previous NTIA rules. For the sake of unconnected Americans, hopefully they will follow through on removing impediments to deployment of the BEAD program.
Johnny Kampis is director of telecom policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. This piece is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.
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