WISPA Chief Urges Administration to Take Its Time Addressing BEAD
The Commerce Department should take its time to ensure it gets BEAD rules right, WISPA President David Zumwalt said in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Moving too quickly “only serves to perpetuate the flaws in BEAD’s original design,” said the letter, released Wednesday. It also urged Lutnick not to ignore the service offered by wireless ISPs.
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“Fixed wireless broadband providers have long been working to bring reliable broadband service to rural communities,” Zumwalt wrote. "Yet until very recently, these providers were largely programmatically excluded from participating in BEAD.” WISPA members already serve “millions of Americans in rural and remote communities, deploying a mix of technologies -- fiber, wireless, and hybrid models -- tailored to the real-world conditions they face,” he said. “They stand ready to deliver even more.”