States are poised to receive $42.5 billion in broadband grants thanks to the 2021 infrastructure bill. While a lot of this money will be going to the usual entrenched monopoly incumbents, a lot of it is also going to a growing list of popular cooperatives, municipalities, and city-owned utilities to expand affordable fiber.
This Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program is going to help bring a lot of competition and new fiber into numerous markets. So, as per obstructionist party tradition, Republicans are trying to kill or undermine it at every possibility.
Republicans voted against the program, but then immediately turned around and took credit for the local improvements among their constituents. They worked tirelessly to try and keep this money from driving competition into Comcast and AT&T markets. They’ve also launched show hearings after learning that the BEAD program is (gasp) trying to make sure this new broadband is affordable to poor people.
Then there’s Trump FCC pick Brendan Carr. Carr, you’ll recall, spends all of his time whining about TikTok (a sector he doesn’t regulate), but none of it on helping telecom consumers (a sector he actually regulates). And when he can focus on telecom, it’s generally either to lobotomize corporate oversight, or do some favor for unpopular companies like Comcast and AT&T.
Like this new missive in the Wall Street Journal (paywall) that tries to claim the BEAD program is a “flop” because it has taken some time to implement it:
“Kamala Harris lamented recently that “in America, it takes too long and it costs too much to build.” She’s right. But she failed to mention that those costly delays are a feature, not a bug, of her progressive policies.”
What Carr doesn’t say is that a primary reason it has taken three years to get this component of the infrastructure bill off the ground was a direct result of Carr’s own incompetence. The Trump and Ajit Pai FCC (of which Carr was a key member) completely mismanaged the FCC’s $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), resulting in billions of dollars in fraud and various delays.
The Pai FCC’s mismanagement of RDOF was so severe, when it came time for the Biden administration to put an agency in charge of the BEAD program, it selected the NTIA instead of the FCC. That’s directly on Carr; but he just (whoops) doesn’t mention that bit.
Progress has been slow because the NTIA has been trying to do all of the stuff the FCC failed to do, like properly map broadband access to ensure the money is spent properly. And do a better job screening applicants to make sure they can actually deliver the broadband networks they promise.
The Carr and Pai FCC didn’t bother with this last bit, resulting in a long line of RDOF applicants (including Musk’s Starlink) getting billions of dollars they didn’t deserve, for projects they couldn’t build. That resulted in a ton of defaulting bidders, and it has taken years for the Biden FCC to clean up the Trump FCC’s mess. Worse, some of the communities stuck in default over RDOF bids now can’t qualify for BEAD funds, boxing them out of a generational broadband funding opportunity due to Trump FCC incompetence.
Starlink in particular was poised to receive nearly a billion dollars from Trump to deliver expensive, satellite access to a handful of airport parking lots and traffic medians. The Biden FCC (correctly) retracted that award, stating it wasn’t clear that the increasingly congested Starlink network could actually deliver consistently promised speeds. They also said Starlink access was expensive, instead redirecting these funds toward more “future proof” and affordable local fiber and wireless access. I’ve criticized the Biden FCC plenty; but on this particular point they were absolutely correct.
Still, Musk and Republicans have been throwing a noisy hissy fit ever since. Carr continues it in the pages of the Journal, falsely claiming the FCC engaged in “regulatory warfare” because it didn’t give a billionaire a billion dollars for slow, expensive broadband access:
“As I noted in my dissent at the time, the FCC’s revocation couldn’t be explained by any objective application of the facts, the law or sound policy. In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Musk. Rural communities stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide are paying the price.”
That the GOP cares about the “digital divide” is a fiction. That the party cares about funding broadband access to rural communities is a fiction. That the party cares about government being efficient with taxpayer money is a fiction.
Republicans have fought against improving the quality and affordability of broadband access for the better part of thirty years, both by undermining regional competition, and by dismantling what’s left of corporate oversight and consumer protection. It routinely goes out of its way to protect entrenched monopolies like AT&T and Comcast from competition and accountability at every turn.
Carr’s goal is to paint the BEAD infrastructure bill program as a boondoggle, knowing full well money from the popular program will begin to flow to local constituents after the election season. As with all government programs BEAD certainly will have problems, but in this instance the NTIA is actually trying to do things right. That takes time.
BEAD will have a transformative impact on many rural, disconnected markets. I know this because part of my work involves talking to a different red or blue municipality every single week, which all tell me they’re poised for some amazing improvements. And Carr certainly doesn’t want locals understanding that Republicans have tried to dismantle a popular program that’s actually benefiting them.
Should Trump win the White House, you can be fairly certain Carr will be the next agency boss. He’s outlined what he’ll do in his Project 2025 chapter on how the FCC should be run, which largely involves repurposing the agency to harass, tax, and nanny tech companies that don’t kiss the authoritarian ring, and harass media companies that speak critically of King Trump.
You can be absolutely sure Carr will redirect as much BEAD money as possible to Elon Musk and monopolies like AT&T, and dismantle the most useful parts of BEAD (like the efforts to fund popular community-owned broadband networks). Carr is a Trump sycophant of the highest order, and if he’s put in charge of the nation’s biggest telecom and media regulator, the dysfunction won’t be subtle.
