The National Telecommunications and Information Administration released its restructuring plans on Friday for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. BEAD allocated $42.45 billion – $826.5 million in Colorado – to expand high-speed internet access for underserved communities.
A little more than 75% of La Plata County is being serviced with high-speed internet. The BEAD program’s overhaul will force states to reapply for federal funding under a new set of criteria, setting back many internet service providers that previously applied to implement fiber-optic solutions.
BEAD was launched under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act in November 2021, but internet service providers were not able to begin applying for funding until last year. The state then assessed applications and distributed preliminary awards – provisional selections of providers that were to receive funding under the program, but no signed contracts.
The new changes effectively rescind those preliminary awards, and will open a new application process.
Spearheaded by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the program will be revamped to reduce “favoritism towards certain technologies” and get rid of “burdensome regulations.” It will prioritize providing internet access at the lowest cost, as opposed to the previous emphasis on fiber.
“Now, we as fiber providers are most likely going to compete against larger cell carriers and any sort of wireless or Low Earth Orbit satellite services,” said Casey Irving, director of business development and strategy at Clearnetworx.
Fixed wireless infrastructure cannot deliver the same network speeds as fiber for a sustained period of time, and it is harder to upgrade or expand. It just meets the bare minimum requirement to qualify as broadband, and implementing the services could potentially be more expensive over time, as the cost of replacing equipment builds up. Wireless connection is also weakened in places with dense vegetation and trees, like the rural areas where BEAD was attempting to improve connectivity.
Fiber – although more expensive to deploy up front – is more of a sustainable, long-term solution. Fiber-optic cables are installed underground and use light to transmit data at a fast, reliable rate.
But because the program is now prioritizing cheaper options, Irving said fiber applications are much less likely to be awarded BEAD funding.
“These programs are nearly finalized, and delaying them will cost millions of dollars, add unnecessary bureaucratic burdens, and deprive Coloradans of high-speed, affordable internet,” wrote Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper in a statement.
Despite the major setback, smaller broadband projects outside of BEAD remain unaffected in La Plata County.
“I don’t want people to think we’re starting from ground zero again,” Irving said.
Various funding programs at both the federal and state level are encouraging broadband improvements, such as the Capital Projects Fund that awarded $113 million to Colorado.
Before BEAD was created, Region 9 formed the Southwest Broadband task force to acknowledge a lack of connectivity to businesses and residential homes throughout the region.
“We wanted to make sure that we were fully prepared for any type of federal funding coming through,” said La Plata County Commissioner Matt Salka.
Incidents such as phone and internet outages across Southwest Colorado caused by severed fiber-optic lines demonstrated that the region, like many others, was depending on limited infrastructure to support essential communication services.
The committee’s main focus was to facilitate projects to improve redundancy, where multiple connections ensure continuous network service even if the primary one fails.
“That's what's probably going to benefit La Plata County and our southwest region. … We were ahead of other communities and prepared to show proof of projects that were needed to then get funding, spend it and get development going,” Salka said.
With the partnership of La Plata County and several other stakeholders, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe was also awarded over $70 million by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs to bring high-speed connectivity to unserved and underserved areas. The project will run fiber-optic cables along Colorado Highway 151.
Along with other projects, Irving said the state is taking “a huge step in the right direction.”
However, with BEAD allocating more funding, the restructuring of the program is going to deliver a hit to broadband improvement across Southwest Colorado.
Richa Sharma is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at rsharma@durangoherald.com.
