Most States Seen Meeting Sept. 4 BEAD Deadline

The Aspen, Colorado, event also featured speakers discussing issues ranging from digital trade to the geopolitics of AI regulation and freeing up spectrum for future auction. The House Commerce Committee will exercise "vigorous oversight” of the FCC and NTIA as the agencies create an 800 MHz spectrum auction pipeline as required by the revised budget reconciliation package, previously known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, said House Communications Subcommittee Chief GOP Counsel Kate Harper. A lot of interests need to be balanced, she said.

Janice Hauge, University of North Texas economics professor, said Texas has apparently applied for an extension to the Sept. 4 BEAD deadline. David Brodian, NTIA chief counsel, didn’t comment.

Brodian said NTIA appreciates the difficulty states have in facing another round of funding opportunities under the Benefit of the Bargain (BoB) BEAD rules. But the costs attached to some final proposals under the previous iteration of BEAD “were too outrageous,” and the BoB approach is a better use of funds, he said. Commerce rolled out BoB rules June 6 (see 2506060052).

Reitter said that while states “were really in the driver's seat" with the original version of BEAD, it “was trying to be too many things to too many people" with its requirements and bureaucracy. The BoB version is a top-down approach, she said, and its shot clocks and reduced bureaucracy are welcome, she said. However, it's unfortunate that it puts all states on the same timeline, she said, and thus in direct competition for labor and supplies.

Colorado saw “a pretty big shift” in BEAD bidding between the original and current rounds, Reitter said. Fiber claimed about 70% of locations in the state in the original round, with fixed wireless (FW) and low earth orbit taking the rest, she said. Under BoB, with its prioritization of lowest cost options, about 60% of the 130,000 eligible locations appear to be going to FW and, especially, satellite, with fiber claiming the rest. Satellite “was very aggressive” in bidding in the BoB round, participating in all but six state locations, Reitter said. Slightly fewer fiber providers took part in BoB bidding compared with the original round, while far more FW and satellite providers took part in BoB, she added.

BEAD won’t eliminate the need for future broadband deployment subsidies, Reitter said. Greater BEAD spending on FW and satellite broadband will mean future funding will be needed for upgrading those technologies, she added. Fiber wouldn’t necessarily need those same future investments. But with satellite and FW, “you have to keep investing over and over again.”

House Democrats have concerns the current version of BEAD doesn’t reflect the statute’s intent, House Communications Subcommittee Chief Minority Counsel Parul Desai said. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act didn’t prioritize the cheapest technology, but gave states an allocation to achieve universal service in the ways they best saw fit, Desai said. She said there are concerns BoB “is not reflective of the law” when it comes to such issues as relaxing requirements that providers serve all unserved areas. Louisiana’s original final BEAD proposal heavily used fiber, and its BoB final proposal has some of the state's poorest areas no longer receiving fiber service, Desai said. It's questionable whether those residents will be able to afford the monthly costs of, for example, satellite broadband subscriptions. “The cheapest investment is not always the smartest investment,” Desai said.

Harper said many House Republicans had significant concerns about the original version of BEAD and how it put a thumb on the scale for fiber. “We want to be sure NTIA and the states are being responsible with funding,” she said, adding House Commerce will provide oversight during the duration of BEAD.

Harper said the NTIA reauthorization bill passed by the House reflects conversations with Senate counterparts, so there potentially are no sticking points, and it could move through the Senate soon.

Desai said House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey has expressed concerns about the FCC pushing policies based on entities favored or disfavored by Trump personally and employing “sham investigations" to intimidate companies. She said there's a concern about a potential perversion of the public interest standard.

Harper said House Commerce Republicans plan oversight of the FCC, but with a focus that differs from what Democrats would want.

Edgar Rivas, senior policy adviser to Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said commissioner vacancies at the FCC and FTC need to be filled. “Those bodies work best when they are fully staffed,” he said, adding that plenty of candidates are well qualified for Democratic and Republican openings.

AI and Digital Trade

The past year has seen the U.S. AI policy focus shift from safety to getting AI to the market, Meta Platforms Director of AI Policy Victoria Jeffries said. There has also been an avalanche of proposed state legislation, which is “pretty concerning” and risks multiple and sometimes-contradictory regulatory regimes. The White House’s AI action plan rightfully asserts the federal role in leadership on AI regulation, she added.

Eurasia Group Director of Geo-Technology Xiaomeng Lu said China’s AI governance has shifted in the past year to safety, as it sees an opportunity to fill the vacuum left by the U.S. China is also championing open-source AI models, at least for now, she said.

President Joe Biden’s chip policy was trying to promote domestic manufacturing and block foreign adversaries from accessing critical components, Lu said. President Donald Trump doesn’t back government subsidies without the government getting a stake in the company, she said, adding he also seems more comfortable with a certain number of chip exports to China. Lu said it's very possible the U.S. and China will reach at least a small trade deal by year's end and that it could contain an AI export control component.

Congress is likely waiting to see what happens in the courts regarding AI use of copyrighted material for training purposes before it acts, said Matt Perault, head of AI policy for venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Steve Lang, State Department former U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy, said the U.S. and EU need to look for commonalities in how they govern digital trade and present a united front to China. The U.S. shouldn’t undervalue digital good and services in its trade relationships. The U.S. could do a better job of promoting its view of digital regulation compared to the EU approach. Federal privacy legislation could help, he said.

Alan Raul, Future of Privacy Forum president, said restrictions on the export of American citizens' data is an example of the U.S. aligning with the EU. The DOJ finalizing rules in the spring restricting the export of Americans’ sensitive personal information to China and other adversary nations -- the first meaningful restriction on the export of Americans’ personal data -- tracks with the EU approach, he said.

Amazon Associate General Counsel Andrew DeVore criticized Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), saying its regulatory regime targets digital companies as though they are separate from other companies and evaluates U.S. companies based on artificial revenue rather than specific harms. He said the DMA uses the same broad rules for very different digital companies, from search to social media. As a result, the EU economy “is stagnant” and European tech companies are spending heavily on regulatory compliance. DeVore said European adoption of AI will be chilled, putting it at a competitive disadvantage to the U.S. and China.

Aspen Forum Notebook

Borje Ekholm, Ericsson Group CEO, said Chinese competition, particularly from Huawei, is a pressing issue. Chinese firms are “hypercompetitive,” and Ericsson being first in innovation is a must, he said. The tens of thousands of enterprise networks in China -- vs. the couple of thousand the U.S. has -- are driving factory automation in China and are a major asset, he said, highlighting the need for licensed spectrum as part of that competition. The next generation of automation in the economy will depend on reliable connectivity, and that requires spectrum, Ekholm said. European innovation is falling behind the U.S., which invests far more in R&D. Europe’s heavy regulation of AI is “a wet blanket on innovation,” he said.

If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Humphrey’s Executor, which secures the independence of independent agencies, there’s an argument to be made for doing away with the FTC, said TPI nonresident Senior Fellow Jonathan Nuechterlein. Without Humphrey’s Executor, the FTC will be an arm of the White House and would duplicate the Justice Department Antitrust Division, he said.