This diversion contradicts NTIA’s own statement recognizing that BEAD (Broadband Equity Access and Deployment) funding was allocated by Congress to achieve “reliable, affordable and high-speed Internet coverage throughout the United States.” Neither technology creates reliable, affordable, or high-speed coverage. 

Environmental Health Trust has submitted letters to the NTIA and the House Energy and Commerce Committee identifying the problems with such use of Broadband funding.

“EHT submits that investments into low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite broadband service and unlicensed fixed wireless (ULFW) service is neither “reliable”, “affordable” nor “high-speed” and would be a huge waste of taxpayer dollars especially as user capacity and needs are increasing exponentially. …

“It would be irresponsible for the government to continue to fund expansion of wireless networks when it has not done its due diligence in addressing environmental and health impacts from cumulative exposure to radiofrequency (RF) radiation emitting from all wireless infrastructure.”

Among its 13 recommendations to the agency, EHT suggested that the NTIA encourage using existing copper connections to bring broadband access to Extremely High Cost Per Location Threshold (EHCPLT) locations until proper funding is available for fiber or cable to the premises. It also recommended that EHCPLT determinations include the cost of deploying LEO satellite and ULFW services as well as the costs associated with poor performance, costs to the environment and public health, and costs for government liability. 

“NTIA must also consider the macroeconomic costs of lagging behind other countries,” EHT noted.

The BEAD Program, established by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), provides an unprecedented $42.45 billion in funding to states, territories, and the District of Columbia for future-proof broadband. NTIA is the federal agency responsible for administering the BEAD Program.

Initially BEAD funding was only available for future-proof reliable networks — mostly fiber, cable and licensed fixed wireless. Under pressure from Congress and the telecom industry, the NTIA released the Draft Proposed BEAD Alternative Broadband Technology Guidance on August 26, 2024, to “inform the allocation of BEAD Program funds for projects utilizing an alternative technology that does not meet the BEAD Program’s definition of Reliable Broadband Service,” namely Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and Unlicensed Fixed Wireless (ULFW) Networks. 

On September 10, 2024, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing in which Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-WA, and Subcommittee on Communication and Technology Chair Bob Latta, R-OH, applauded NTIA’s new draft guidance and condemned NTIA for not allowing funding for these inferior technologies in its initial grant guidance.