CWA Broadband Brigade Holds the Line on Reliable Internet as Billionaires Backpedal on Satellite Speeds

Last year, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pressured states to allocate a higher share of funds from the Infrastructure Act’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to technologically inferior satellite and fixed wireless services instead of building fiber networks. This was a big disappointment to CWA members, who fought hard for states to prioritize fiber networks, which have the highest download and upload speeds, are scalable for future technological demands, and remain the most efficient, resilient, and sustainable broadband technology.

Billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos stand to gain massively from this upheaval, but they are now backpedaling on promises because their technology may not be up to the standards of the BEAD program. Musk’s company, SpaceX, sent letters to state broadband offices last month requesting exemptions from certain BEAD performance and reporting requirements to ease compliance standards so that SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service would qualify for BEAD funding. Despite loosening the rules, the Commerce Department is against this and advised states not to fulfill SpaceX’s exemption requests.

Members of CWA’s Broadband Brigade are continuing to advocate for the build-out of reliable, high-speed fiber networks and will be fighting to hold satellite providers accountable.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.