FBA and Nextlink Leaders Say LEO Service Isn't 'Critical Infrastructure'
Bill Baker, CEO of Texas-based ISP Nextlink, and Gary Bolton, CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), said Wednesday that satellite broadband isn’t a true substitute for fiber or fixed wireless access. Speaking at an FBA webinar, both questioned the move of some states to embrace low earth orbit (LEO) proposals from SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's Kuiper as part of a restructured BEAD program (see 2507290070).
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NTIA’s initial proposal was for fiber to go "everywhere” it can be built, and then wireless and alternative technologies, Bolton said. “That made a lot of sense because you were building up critical infrastructure,” he said. “Everybody is served by Starlink because it’s a satellite in the sky,” yet an area is considered unserved “until you get the money.”
BEAD was funded through the bipartisan infrastructure legislation Congress approved in 2021, Baker said. “There is zero infrastructure being deployed if you award LEO,” he said, noting that some state broadband offices understand that dynamic and some don’t. Baker feels "a combination of sadness and anger when I see some states have literally designated LEO as a priority technology,” he added. “I just don’t think they understand, and they’ve received poor advice from their outside consultants.”
Other countries understand that LEO isn’t “critical infrastructure,” Bolton said. “We’re in this alternative reality with all this pressure to deploy LEO,” which should be viewed as a backup plan, similar to a backup generator, he said. People don’t want to run their business or home off a generator “when real power is available.”
The BEAD program is making progress, with all U.S. states and territories having been cleared to move to the "Benefit of the Bargain" stage, and last week Louisiana and Virginia became the first states to publish their proposals for public comment, Bolton said. But other money is also available, with private equity firms making more investments in broadband in the first six months of 2025 than all of last year combined, he said.
Some FBA members are asking why they would participate in BEAD when they have “so much access to private equity and private capital,” Bolton said.
Baker predicted lots of mergers ahead for ISPs, with “lots of small deals” in the works. “We’re about to enter into a consolidation period,” he said. Both the financial markets and federal regulators are becoming “more receptive” to mergers.
Nextlink started as a wireless ISP, using unlicensed spectrum, Baker said. “We sort of evolved” and made a major investment in citizens broadband radio service licenses in the 2020 auction, he said. Nextlink bought more than 1,100 licenses and “predominantly today, our subscriber base is served with CBRS technology.” The company uses gear from Tarana Wireless and gets “tremendous performance through trees, at distance,” he said, adding that Nextlink can offer 1 Gbps service 5 miles from a transmitter and 100 Mbps service 12 miles away.