Trump Taps Critic of Broadband Expansion Plan to Oversee Program
(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration chose an opponent of former President Joe Biden’s $42.5 billion broadband funding initiative to oversee that program, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, putting its direction in doubt.
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Arielle Roth was nominated to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department that oversees the broadband infrastructure project as well as the federal government’s use and allocation of communications airwaves.
Roth has been tapped to recast a program designed to extend internet access to underserved communities, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the administration’s internal deliberations. The effort, known as the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, or BEAD, has been marked by slow progress and criticized for preferring fiber over other technologies.
Among its most vocal critics: Billionaire Elon Musk, whose SpaceX offers a satellite internet service called Starlink, and who has been tasked by President Donald Trump to cut government spending broadly. It’s also been criticized by conservatives who say it attaches a liberal agenda to internet infrastructure expansion across the country.
The broadband initiative was created with the goal of extending high-speed internet service to the 25 million US residents who still don’t have it. Congress directed the Commerce Department to disburse funds to states after their buildout plans were approved. But the vast majority of the money remains in government coffers.
Its slow progress came under fire from Republicans, including new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. He blasted the Biden administration for trying to impose price controls on internet providers by requiring states to set benchmarks for how much low-cost internet plans could charge.
Carr told the House Oversight Committee last year that the administration also inappropriately pushed diversity, equity and inclusion requirements, environmental provisions and a preference for fiber over fixed wireless and satellite internet technologies like Musk’s Starlink.
“It has now been 1,039 days since the $42 billion program was signed into law,” Carr said in prepared testimony last September. “After all of that time, not one person has been connected to the internet with those dollars — not one home, not one business. Indeed, not even one shovel worth of dirt has been turned with those dollars.”
Musk has publicly criticized the program for disadvantaging his Starlink service. Regulators had concluded it was too slow and unreliable to qualify for earlier subsidies. Musk prefers initiatives like the now-defunct Affordable Connectivity Plan, a Covid-era internet subsidy prgram that was neutral on technology, according to a person familiar with the billionaire’s thinking.
Roth is a Senate Commerce Committee saffer who wants to significantly reform the broadband program, according to the people. The initiative can’t be scrapped because Congress enshrined it in a statute, but Roth could revisit decisions like the current preference for fiber, according to one of the people.
Roth can also be expected to change the funding conditions that currently include priority access for government-owned networks, according to another person. She could also push through state plans that have been held up by red tape.
Roth didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. She previously worked as an aide to Senator Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, and as an adviser to former Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O’Rielly.
(Updates to reflect Roth’s nomination and Musk’s preference for internet subsidies.)
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