Members of Berrien County’s broadband committee have met with Congressman Tim Walberg and representatives of Congressman Bill Huizenga to express their concerns about changes to a federal program that awards broadband expansion grants to states.
Speaking at Thursday’s meeting of the Berrien County Board of Commissioners, BC Bit’s Commissioner Teri Freehling said the federal government has implemented new rules for the Broadband Equity and Deployment, or BEAD, program. The new rules score applications for grants differently, basing much of the scoring on the cost of proposed broadband projects. Freehling said this will favor satellite over fiber. She said the state of Tennessee learned this after submitting BEAD applications recently.
“And what they’re finding is these low earth orbit satellite companies, like Starlink and the one that Amazon has, they are not just coming under as the champions in what’s being bid, but they are so far under in the bidding process that it’s hard to really say anything other than they’re the ones that are going to be getting the contract awarded,” Freehling said.
The problem is that the projects being proposed in Berrien County by internet service providers are mostly fiber-related, not satellite.
Freehling said if the application process took other things into consideration, like support from the local governments, then maybe the balance could be tipped. That’s why she and other BC Bit members have been talking to the congressmen.
