This week, The Verge published an in-depth piece – “Elon Musk and the plot to hijack America’s broadband” – authored by our own Sean Gonsalves and ILSR contributor Karl Bode that examines the BEAD program from its inception to where it is now.
The piece details how the once-in-a-generation program meant to solve America’s digital divide has devolved into “a flaming mess.” It begins with the recent explosion of Blue Origin New Glenn rocket and how that is “an unintentionally perfect metaphor for a once-in-a-generation attempt to fix the creaky US broadband system.”
It goes on to explain how under President Donald Trump and a coalition of MAGA-allied tech moguls, the BEAD program has been transformed into ‘tear down quickly’ program, leaving states mired in bureaucracy and delays, and how five years later, only a handful of the millions of Americans slated for an internet access upgrade actually got one – with little accountability in sight.
You can read the entire story on The Verge website here.
As states are forced to retool their plans for fiber networks they may no longer be able to afford, Bezos and Musk potentially stand to see billions in additional subsidies for network access that already exists or they already intended to deploy.