FBA 'Cautiously Optimistic’ About Fiber’s Role in BEAD

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2025 – The fiber industry’s main trade group is “cautiously optimistic” the $42.45 billion broadband expansion effort will still have a big role for fiber, even though the Trump administration has been critical of existing rules that prioritize the technology.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that with the implementation of a tech neutrality rule, there will be a mix. And fiber will have a strong place in that mix,” said Marissa Mitrovich, FBA’s vice president of public policy. She spoke at a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar.

She added that based on conversations with officials and staffers in Washington, “I do believe there’s an understanding of the importance of getting critical infrastructure deployed with these BEAD funds.”

The Trump administration has effectively put the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program on pause at the federal level since March while it decides how to alter program rules – Trump and GOP leadership have been opposed to the program’s preference for fiber, citing its relatively higher cost to deploy. 

The idea behind prioritizing the technology in 2021 was that its high speeds would make the investment more permanent. 

States are now expecting updated guidance from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in June or July. It’s not clear whether that guidance will require the more than 40 states that have already started or finished the application process to redo their bidding. 

Blair Levin, policy analyst at New Street Research and former FCC chief of staff, said there’s reason to think Commerce might at least be considering a more substantial change. 

He said the two most likely outcomes were NTIA scrapping various fair labor or diversity provisions the GOP opposes, or telling states to rerun bidding with a new cap on per-location spending, which would effectively force money to be shifted away from fiber and toward fixed wireless and satellite.

If the NTIA wanted to do the former, he said, it would have been feasible to do already. But the agency recently delayed its new guidance from mid-May to later this summer.

In the meantime, state broadband offices and ISPs involved in BEAD have been urging Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick not to stray too far from the course. Lawmakers in Washington like Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Va., have also expressed concerns about sweeping rule changes.

“I think the political pressure not to force the states to rebid is growing,” Levin said. “I don’t know that Lutnick cares.”

Arielle Roth, Trump’s pick to head the NTIA, has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. She serves as the top telecom policy advisor for Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and has also been critical of BEAD’s fiber preference.