D.C. Memo: Roth a Critic of BEAD's Fiber Spending and Rate Regulation
◾ Supino: Comcast Should Spin NBCU & Sky ◾ Is Jeff Kagan Following Charter? ◾ Rep. MTG Calls for PBS/NPR Hearing ◾ FSF's Long Floats Zero Corporate Tax Rate ◾ CTA to NAB: AM Radio Bill 'Luddite' Idea
BEAD: If there’s one thing to say about Arielle Roth, it is this: She definitely works for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Cruz on Monday said President Trump named his committee staffer Roth to head the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, where she can make adjustments to the troubled $42.45 billion BEAD program charged with connecting millions of unserved locations but so far has done so for not a one. Last June, Roth at a Federalist Society event gave her take on problems with the BEAD program and not surprisingly she sounded a lot like her boss Cruz. “Instead of prioritizing connecting all Americans who are currently unserved to broadband, the NTIA has just been preoccupied with attaching all kinds of extra-legal requirements on BEAD and, honestly, a woke social agenda loading up all kinds of burdens that deter participation in the program and drive up costs actually,” Roth said. It looks as if ridding BEAD of its excessive reliance on fiber spending will be a top priority for her. “Congress wrote the [Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act] in a tech-neutral manner,” Roth said. “Any technology could be eligible for BEAD subsidies provided that they met the performance requirements in the statute,” she said. “Instead, NTIA has gone in a totally different direction and imposed extreme tech bias in favor of fiber in the BEAD program. That's just going to make the program more expensive. A one-size-fits-all solution doesn't make sense.” (Continued after paywall.)
