With Trump Now in Office, What About BEAD?

With Donald Trump back in the White House, it's only a matter of time before the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program gets the overhaul everyone's anticipating.

 

But first things first, Trump needs to appoint an NTIA administrator to succeed Alan Davidson. According to Chad Duval, a partner at accounting firm Moss Adams, rumor has it the new BEAD boss will likely be Arielle Roth, policy director of telecommunications on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.

 

Her current position means Roth works for committee chair Senator Ted Cruz, who is no fan at all of the current BEAD program. Law firm Akin Gump had tipped Roth as a possible pick to fill the fifth seat at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but Senate staffer Olivia Trusty is currently poised to take that role.

 

What the Trump win could mean for the BEAD program?

 

It could be weeks before Trump appoints a new NTIA chief, according to New Street Research. "With all due respect to whoever is named, we doubt it will be investor relevant," said NSR policy analyst Blair Levin in a note last Friday.

 

Duval, whose firm works with telecommunications providers across the country on regulatory policy issues, said "the writing is on the wall" that BEAD's fiber preference will be dialed back.

 

Trump has already issued a slew of executive orders in his first few days in office, including one freezing new federal regulations until new administrators are put in place. Given states need the greenlight from NTIA before releasing their BEAD Final Proposal and list of grant winners, their deployment plans could come to a screeching halt.

 

Meanwhile, another executive order called on agencies to pause disbursement of funds from both the Inflation Reduction and Infrastructure Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the latter of which allocated money for BEAD. However, the Trump administration released a subsequent memo clarifying the order only applies to certain energy projects.

 

Thus far, Louisiana, Delaware and Nevada are the only states to announce BEAD funding recipients. Perhaps "the train has already left the station" for them to pull back their plans amid upcoming changes, Duval said. But that leaves 53 states and territories that could see their broadband programs "change in a meaningful way."

 

Elon Musk, who is close to Trump and owns Starlink parent company SpaceX, is poised to have a significant influence on BEAD policy. New FCC Chair Brendan Carr will also likely weigh in on the program.

 

But the aforementioned law firm Akin Gump thinks NTIA "may become an even more important player on communications issues," as it's an executive agency and not independent like the FCC.