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NTIA chief Alan Davidson spoke at the ACA Connects Summit about the agency's outlook on the BEAD program
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Expectation for BEAD is simple: to connect everybody in the country, the unserved "at the very least"
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NTIA is also overseeing initiatives around digital equity and AI accountability
ACA CONNECTS SUMMIT, WASHINGTON DC – We’ve heard the NTIA say 2024 is “the year of execution” for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. At ACA Connects’ annual summit this week, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson revealed how the agency is juggling BEAD along with its initiatives focused on digital equity and artifical intelligence (AI) risks.
When Davidson first took the helm at NTIA, plenty of states didn’t even have broadband offices. Fast-forward two years, states have “built out much more robust capacities…they’ve all gotten their initial plans in the door.”
Event the NTIA itself grew “almost 40% bigger” in the past couple of years, and Davidson joked the agency is “like a startup for the government," because of that growth.
Expanding office sizes aside, when asked what his expectations are at the end of the day for BEAD, Davidson put it plainly: to connect everyone in the country to high-speed internet.
“We have said to the states, show us a plan to connect everybody,” he said, referring to the unserved “at the very least.” And the NTIA is feeling pretty good about that goal, when factoring in other broadband programs from the Treasury Department, USDA, the FCC as well as state grants.
“[When] you put it all together, we’re very optimistic about BEAD being able to get us across the finish line.”
Not only is NTIA trying to guide states with their connectivity roadmaps, it’s also thinking about how to help operators once BEAD money is distributed.
“Permitting has been very high on the list,” said Davidson. He acknowledged while not every aspect of permitting is under NTIA’s control, it’s considering how to streamline things like environmental permitting and permitting on federal lands. And NTIA isn’t the only government agency tackling permitting review.
Putting the 'E' in BEAD
Expanding general connectivity is only one piece of the puzzle for NTIA. The agency is also focused on the role that digital equity plays in BEAD. Nextlink Chief Strategy Officer Claude Aiken probably summed it best at Fierce’s U.S. Broadband Summit when he said, “BEAD without equity is just BAD.”
There's good news on that front. As of March, every state and territory "will have submitted" a digital equity plan, which outlines how they aim to address gaps in digital access, skills and affordability, according to Davidson. Maine was the first state to get its digital equity plan greenlit by NTIA.
“A connection is really important. But if you run that wire past somebody’s house or have that wireless connection and they can’t afford it, it doesn’t do them any good,” said Davidson.
Maine’s plan stood out because one angle focused on how the state “really wanted to get [its] plan done quickly” so that BEAD grant work can “be motivated by [its] digital equity goals," he said. “They have a set of really interesting ideas about how they’re using community centers, senior centers, church groups, all the tools” to try to bolster internet adoption.
What's the deal with NTIA and AI?
AI is another important topic for NTIA — and not just because you can’t go far in the telecom space without hearing about AI these days. The White House tasked NTIA along with several other agencies in October 2023 to "evaluate and mitigate the risks of AI ensure safety, security and trust."
This is definitely an ambitious ask because Davidson noted that while there’s a general understanding of how AI is going to “transform” the economy, making areas like medicine and precision agriculture more efficient, the key will be figuring out how to make that AI “responsible.”
“Because we’re only going to realize that promise if we think about the risks that are out there with security, privacy, bias in the systems,” he said. “That’s the part that we’re really working on.”
The NTIA plans to publish a report on AI accountability sometime this spring, tackling the question of, “how do you tell if an AI system is doing what it says it’s going to do?”
Given that a handful of companies just formed an AI joint venture geared toward improving the customer experience for telcos, it’s a timely question to ask.