WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration on Friday released revised rules for a federal program meant to widely expand broadband access, stripping the Biden-era effort of many key requirements and making it easier for Elon Musk’s company to win grants.
Under the revised guidelines, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, known as BEAD, will take a technology-neutral approach to expanding broadband access rather than focusing on fiber internet. The original program favored fiber because of its speed, reliability and ability to reach remote locations.
The change opens the door for more internet providers to use BEAD grants for technologies including satellite internet service, which is provided by Elon Musk’s Starlink. Under the new rules, Starlink could receive $10 billion to $20 billion in BEAD money, up from $4.1 billion the company would have received under the original rules, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Groups applying for BEAD funding also will no longer be required to offer a low-cost service option for internet users in locations they are serving. Some states had proposed services as low as $30 a month.
Instead, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration now encourages internet providers to propose their “existing, market driven low-cost plans” to meet the cost requirement.
A lagging broadband program faces more delays as Trump plans changes
As part of the Trump administration’s push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the government, the new guidelines also remove provisions that encouraged states to work with companies and representatives from minority communities. Requirements related to labor, the environment and climate change also were cut.
And the agency eliminated a provision of the original program that encouraged states to seek out non-traditional providers, including municipalities or political subdivisions that provide internet service.
Louisiana’s, Nevada’s and Delaware’s proposals, which had been approved, will be rescinded.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick promised to launch a rigorous review of the BEAD program in March, saying in a statement that because of “woke mandates, favoritism towards certain technologies and burdensome regulations, the program has not connected a single person to the internet and is in dire need of a readjustment.”
In April, the Trump administration gave states an additional 90 days to submit their final plans for the $42.45 billion program in anticipation of the changes, further delaying an effort that’s set to go back to the planning phase after more than three years.
Evan Feinman, the former director of the BEAD program, said states will now have to rework their proposals again.
“For some reason, [Secretary] Lutnick, who said the program was going too slowly, wants to slow the program down much more, force states and the private sector to do a ton of extra work and spend a bunch of extra taxpayer money all so we can get worse connections to people that will cost them more every month,” he said.
The Internet & Television Association, a trade association representing the broadband and cable industries, praised the new guidelines in a statement, saying, “We welcome changes to the BEAD program that will make the program more efficient and eliminate onerous requirements, which add unnecessary costs that impede broadband deployment efforts.”
But Drew Garner, the director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said in a statement that the changes will “cement the digital divide for decades.” The Benton Institute is a nonprofit organization championing digital access for all.
“[Lutnick] is hurting our economic competitiveness, our healthcare and education, and our ability to work and stay connected with loved ones,” Garner said in the statement. “He is denying rural Americans access to the modern economy and our increasingly connected world.”
Stateline reporter Madyson Fitzgerald can be reached at mfitzgerald@stateline.org.
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