D.C. Memo: Oklahoma Broadband Official Concerned about Washington 'Bureaucrats'
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BEAD: Oklahoma’s top broadband official wants his state to decide where and how BEAD program money is spent. “We're ultimately wanting to make sure that Oklahomans can decide what's best for Oklahoma, not, you know, perhaps bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.,” Mike Sanders, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Broadband Office, said yesterday on a webinar hosted by the Fiber Broadband Association. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is reviewing the $42.45 billion BEAD program under rules adopted by the Biden Administration. Lutnick’s pause has angered Senate Democrats and concerned states like Louisiana, Delaware, and Nevada over the Trump administration’s decision to freeze their funding giving final approval by the Biden NTIA. “Every new administration, when you come into a situation like this, should have an opportunity to review all policies from a previous administration,” Sanders said. “But we've been waiting for BEAD and this broadband expansion for a long, long time and I would hate to see more delays.” Like the Biden administration, Oklahoma prefers to spend the bulk of its $797 million BEAD allocation on fiber, though Sanders said other technologies should be in the mix. “It's going to take the fixed wireless and the unlicensed fixed wireless. And I think there is a role for LEO to be at the table. Our preference, of course, is fiber. But again, you are only limited to so much money,” Sanders said. Asked if he knew what Lutnick’s new BEAD rules might look like, Sanders said, “If I knew that answer, you and I would be in Vegas tonight.” (More after paywall, including Albuquerque’s crackdown on fiber builders.)
