Broadband expert Levin says Trump’s approach to telecom is unprecedented
As Donald Trump prepares to assume office in January, he has wasted no time setting the pace for his telecom policy plans, signaling his support for alternative technologies to fiber like low-earth orbit LEO satellite broadband.
Having already nominated Republican Brendan Carr as the new FCC chair, the Trump administration will be influenced by his relationship with Elon Musk, the leader of the Starlink satellite company.
Telecom policy industry observers, like Blair Levin, Policy Advisor to New Street Research, say that Trump’s new-term decisions will be based on political, not necessarily policy, lines.
Levin certainly has plenty of experience in navigating telecom and broadband policy.
He previously served on the FCC during the Clinton administration and later was the key writer of the United States National Broadband Plan.
“In a piece I did for Wall Street right before Labor Day, I said that if Trump wins the presidency, the most important setting telecom policy will be Elon Musk,” he said. “This is important for investors because he has a different business model.”
Influencing BEAD
A significant policy question the industry is watching is how the incoming Trump administration will affect the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
The NTIA oversees BEAD and favors fiber-based platforms to fuel new broadband builds.
However, with Musk having such a large influence, this rule will likely change.
“The current BEAD program involves NTIA telling the states that they prioritize fiber, but if you’re Elon Musk, you don’t want that because that is the government is funding a competitor to his business, Starlink,” Levin said. “We can argue about the technologies, but if the policymakers believe that satellite is as good or better than fiber, you dramatically change how the BEAD program would operate and how to think about universal service.”
During a recent episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast, Levin pointed out how Donald Trump's statement that he sees potential in using satellite services like Musk’s Starlink as a low-cost option shaped his opinion.
“A governor of a state should be concerned,” he said. “And if the president believes satellites can do the job, I don’t think the president understands the capacity issue of satellites. That’s probably not been mentioned to him.”
State’s reaction?
Another key question about the new administration and how investors could react is what the president wants to happen and how the governors respond to that issue.
Elon Musk, who has been tapped to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Vivek Ramaswamy, a proposed presidential advisory commission in the United States, could target BEAD.
Levin said that as he advises investors, he considers what the president wants and how that gets implemented. Also, how do state governors react to it?
“Musk is arguing that if you let him take care of the job, it will all be handled, and he’ll be able to return tens of billions to the US Treasury because BEAD was a waste of money,” he said. “The question is, are we going to have a policy argument or a political one? Elon Musk was a big backer of the president; therefore, he gets his wish.”
In the meantime, states like Louisiana and Texas are not waiting to see what happens after Trump takes office.
Louisiana, which has led all other states in implementing the BEAD program, received a $1.36 billion allocation from the BEAD program. This money will go toward connecting more than 200,000 locations. Louisiana's Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities program has already funded broadband connections to more than 70,000 locations.
Brightspeed will spend $7.5 million to help reach 2,800 locations with its planned fiber broadband network built in Louisiana.
Texas awarded $3.3 billion in BEAD funding and is also moving forward.
Gary Bolton, CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, said recent actions from Louisiana and Texas are encouraging.
“The good news is I saw some good indicators: first was that Texas went and got approved and Louisiana is out of the gate,” he said. “The momentum is on our side to make sure this happens.”
Bolton added that he also notices local rural businesses touting fiber-based connectivity as an amenity.
“I saw an e-mail from Mountain Bike Bed and Breakfast in the woods of North Georgia up in the mountains who said they have fiber,” he said. “They were making a big promotion saying to come out and ride your mountain bike because we have fiber and you can stay longer to make Zoom calls and other activities, so I thought that was another great litmus test that consumers care about having fiber.”
Dismantling BEAD
For all of its promises, BEAD is a key program that Republican lawmakers like Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa have cited as one that needs to be scuttled.
Senator Cruz asked in a letter to the NTIA in August to pause the BEAD program.
In response to Cruz, the NTIA previously said that its Broadband Infrastructure Program has provided Internet service to more than 40,000 previously underserved households and laid more than 2,700 miles of new or upgraded fiber.
In a letter to Musk and Ramaswamy, the co-chairs of the US Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE), Ernst called the infrastructure program to create electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and expanding broadband “Biden’s Billion Dollar Boondoggles.”
“Three years later, just 17 EV stations are completed, and not a single person—not one—has been connected to the internet yet,” she wrote. “It’s time to pull the plug.”
NTIA has set aside $415.3 million in broadband grant money for Iowa.
Levin said that given the rural nature of Iowa, he was surprised that Ernst would have this stance. “Coming from a rural state with many rural telephone companies, it’s extraordinary to me that she would say that,” he said.
He added that Ernst may call to rework parts of BEAD. “Maybe she just means the Biden team screwed it up, and we need to start from scratch,” Levin said. “Here’s the problem: if we start from scratch, there won’t be another infrastructure bill.”
One key issue is that NTIA’s requirements favoring fiber will be eliminated. However, the states will likely proceed with their fiber broadband plans.
“I don’t think simply taking away the preference for fiber changes that much because as long as the governors are in charge, most of the governors prefer fiber,” he said. “They are not interested in returning money to the US Treasury. They are interested in building fiber to as many places as possible because they would love to have rural areas with better connectivity that people can rely on.”
But he emphasized that he is telling the investment community that the country will now be in a unique time.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” Levin said. “We have never had the largest shareholder of a major communications company be a principal advisor to the president. Trump’s approach to communications differs from what investors saw in the past.”
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Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategies of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report across their websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products.