NTIA's Roth: No Rate Regulation or Net Neutrality Rules for BEAD Providers
NTIA is making it explicitly clear to states that they can't impose rate regulation on BEAD projects, Administrator Arielle Roth said Tuesday. In a Hudson Institute address, Roth said the agency is telling states that providers must be protected from rate regulation and state-level net neutrality rules during the BEAD period of performance. Without those protections, state broadband regulations "could create perverse incentives" that push providers to move resources from BEAD commitments to other areas, she said, which would in turn raise the likelihood of defaults.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
NTIA also will require states to have providers certify in writing that they won't take additional subsidies, including operational subsidies, to complete or operate their BEAD projects. Providers that don't make that commitment won't get BEAD funding, Roth said. "BEAD was designed to close broadband gaps once and for all, not create another cycle of dependency." She said that should be achievable, given how BEAD projects have averaged 40% financial matches from providers, well above the 25% statutory requirement.
Defaults have been "the Achilles' heel of past broadband efforts," Roth argued, citing the permitting delays and wait times for pole access in the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund that killed some projects. She noted that NTIA's environmental screening and permitting tracking tool -- which is aimed at automating environmental reviews, along with dozens of categorical exclusions to environmental reviews -- are expected to result in as many as 95% of BEAD projects getting environmental review approval.
"States need to match that urgency," Roth said, and NTIA is pushing them for a commitment that they will expedite permitting and minimize permitting-related costs. She said NTIA is also looking at ways that BEAD non-deployment funds could potentially be used for permitting reforms.
NTIA has shot down some BEAD "outlier projects," where costs were unreasonably high or feasibility was questionable, Roth said. The agency instead has demanded more cost-effective and feasible options in those cases, she added. "We have a deep responsibility ... not just to spend, but to spend wisely."
Roth also said the "Benefit of the Bargain" version of BEAD has seen greater participation from providers, as well as greater matching funds from them. Savings are "$18 billion and counting." The changes aren't just about saving money, but also avoiding excessive subsidies that would distort the marketplace and freeze certain technologies in place, she said.
Keeping BEAD defaults "to an absolute minimum" is a major priority, Roth added, and that requires "meticulously" reviewing state proposals.