WISPA Raises Concerns About Kentucky's BEAD Plan in NTIA Letter
Kentucky's Office of Broadband Development misinterpreted several parts of NTIA's revised guidelines for the BEAD program, the Wireless ISP Association told the agency in a letter Thursday. The group asked the agency to reject Kentucky's revised plan. WISPA said the…
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state is asking unlicensed fixed wireless (ULFW) providers for information to "help determine whether they are providing coverage sufficient to remove locations from BEAD eligibility." The group noted that the state is requiring ULFW providers to demonstrate they have a reserve capacity of 5 Mbps at the backhaul level rather than internally to a broadband serviceable location. "Applying the reserve capacity guidance to backhaul would effectively triple or quadruple the amount of backhaul capacity required; such a standard has not been applied to fiber networks," WISPA said. The group also raised concerns about measures being used to "disqualify ULFW locations based on significantly flawed and highly restrictive misinterpretations of appropriate and industry-standard interference mitigation techniques used by WISPA members." WISPA also cited Connected Nation's involvement in developing Kentucky's plan. It's "possible, if not likely, that it is actively applying its misguided Appendix A interpretations beyond Kentucky," the group said, urging NTIA to "step in to examine and clarify these matters and correct any disconnect."