NTCA, FBA Seek 'Fiber First' BEAD Funding, in Letter to NTIA's Davidson
NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield and Fiber Broadband Association President-CEO Gary Bolton asked NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson to prioritize broadband, equity, access and deployment program funding for "future proof, all-fiber networks," said a letter Thursday. Bloomfield and Bolton said NTIA should…
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"place a heavy priority and preference" on projects that would serve a higher percentage of unserved locations. They also raised concerns that previous grant programs "have sought to award support based on subjective factors and policies that are extraneous to building and operating a broadband network and providing services." NTIA should "adopt tight guardrails" and accountability measures to "ensure applications are considered on their objective merits," they said. The program "has tremendous potential," they said, but "we are under no illusion this will be easy."