Bidding Design Could Tamp Down on BEAD Winners Seeking More Aid: Economists
BEAD subgrantees will inevitably be incentivized to return to the government to seek more money to cover cost overruns, economists wrote Wednesday. But there may be ways of reducing the problem through the design of BEAD bidding processes, said Stanford…
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Public Policy Program Director Gregory Rosston and Technology Policy Institute President Scott Wallsten. They noted that there are already signs that subgrantees are putting in unrealistically low bids with the expectation of seeking future USF support to subsidize their operations. But robust broadband competition lowers the likelihood that previously subsidized competitors will succeed in lobbying for more subsidies later, the economists said, and competition in rural areas is growing. NTIA and states "should buy time to let competition take hold before winners can come back to the trough," they said.