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BEAD’s former program director warns that straying from a fiber focus could prove detrimental to rural Americans.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
Low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity will not offer the same price relief for consumers compared to fiber, according to Evan Feinman, the NTIA’s former director of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
Feinman, speaking to the Beyond the Cable podcast last week, warned that rural Americans would “get less and pay more” with satellite connectivity versus fiber.
Additionally, he said the BEAD Program’s emphasis on state-crafted proposals has allowed states to decide the technology mixtures that best suit them, with factors like geography playing in.
Now, after resigning his post on March 14, Feinman worries that a new, overly centralized approach to the BEAD Program will lead to negative results.
Technology mixtures best decided by states, Feinman says
“You look at Louisiana, you look at Nevada,” Feinman said. “Louisiana wound up serving about 95 percent of their locations with a fiber-optic connection. They then are going to serve about 3 percent with fixed wireless and 2 percent with LEO satellite. That’s a good outcome for Louisiana.”
Nevada, meanwhile, will serve about 80 percent of locations with fiber, 10 percent with fixed wireless, and 10 percent with LEO satellite, Feinman stated.
“Also, a great outcome for Nevada, and one that they should be permitted to move forward with,” he said.
The mixture of technologies to best connect state residents in BEAD proposals is best determined by the states, Feinman stressed.
‘The economics of those LEO networks are really challenging’
Feinman also sounded alarm about the affordability of Starlink services versus the price tag for connections from fiber providers.
“The sticker price right now for Starlink is $120 a month,” Feinman said. “The economics of those LEO networks are really challenging.”
Feinman explained that a fully built out LEO constellation could involve dozens of thousands of satellites.
“Those satellites, because of the fact that they’re in LEO, they’re experiencing drag from the outer atmosphere,” he said.
As a result, Feinman said LEO satellites eventually have to deorbit after 3-5 years.
“Those LEO satellite constellations, they’re going to have to be launching thousands and thousands and thousands of satellites, every single year, forever, to maintain those networks.”
Feinman said that while LEO providers may indeed survive long-term, their economics will remain complicated.
“There’s not going to be the same downward pressure on end-user prices that you’re going to continue to see in the wired space,” he said.
Feinman, however, still called LEO satellite technology a good solution for a broad set of applications.
“It’s the best solution for a set of them,” he said, adding that there are thousands of locations where fiber simply doesn’t make economic sense.
Feinman’s departure follows Lutnick’s ‘rigorous review’
Feinman’s departure from the NTIA came shortly after Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced a “rigorous review” of the BEAD Program.
According to Feinman, a “pretty clear directive” came from Lutnick’s office to increase the use of LEO satellite in the BEAD Program.
“I don’t think that’s really well-supported by a plain reading of the statue that created the BEAD program,” Feinman said on the matter.
Feinman said he would have welcomed a rigorous review of the BEAD Program.
“That was not my experience,” Feinman stated. “Instead, it seems as though the outcome of any review had been determined already.”
How to listen
Feinman is worried that the new direction of the BEAD Program could “lock in” a digital divide. Click here to listen to the full episode on Spotify.
Apple Podcasts listeners, meanwhile, may click here to hear the full interview with Feinman.
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