Fiber to Every Rural Home: BEAD is More Than Enough

The level of BEAD funding is far more than adequate to complete the work started under the CAF II Auction, and continued under CARES, RDOF and ARPA: Fiber to every rural home.In 2010, the consultants working on the National Broadband Plan estimated that the cost to build fiber to every rural home would exceed $300 billion. That estimate, as much as any other factor, drove the federal government’s view that rural fiber was prohibitively expensive. The FCC effectively decided not to close the digital divide, and instead pursue “good enough” solutions, including DSL, fixed wireless and satellite. Over the decade to follow, the FCC committed nearly $100 billion to non-fiber solutions while the divide grew. As a nation, will we make that mistake again? Will exaggerated costs to build fiber networks divert public resources to sub-optimal technologies? Or will we commit to close the digital divide with fiber-optic networks to every rural community?