Benton Foundation

As those projects move forward, policy experts are discussing what comes after BEAD.

At a Benton Institute event, several speakers argued that the BEAD program won't close all the remaining broadband gaps.

NextLink's Claude Aiken described growing rural competition from fixed wireless and low-Earth orbit satellites and said few people still expect that BEAD will be the final infrastructure subsidy program.

Aiken also cautioned against drawing too direct a comparison with rural electrification, noting that electric utilities operate as regulated monopolies, unlike the competitive broadband markets he described.