U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., introduced legislation earlier this month called the ‘‘Streamlining Program Efficiency and Expanding Deployment for BEAD Act’’ or “SPEED for BEAD.”
The bill seeks to change the BEAD program established under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law in a number of ways.
One particular change the legislation proposes is to abandon the federal government’s preference for investing in fiber networks in favor of a so-called “technology neutral” stance.
Should the bill pass, it would position Trump administration adviser Elon Musk to get more federal funds to subsidize Starlink LEO satellite Internet service connections.
In this article, ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative Director Christopher Mitchell spoke to StateScoop about why Internet access technologies used for broadband projects do matter.
Read the article here.
“I am in favor of a historic fiber optic investment because I have watched as the federal government has put billions of dollars into obsolete technologies that were not providing the benefits we needed by the time we turned the network on.”
Christopher Mitchell in StateScoop