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This money was originally slated to fund a lot of future-proof fiber. The program also had provisions to ensure these networks were affordable and equitably deployed to poor and minority neighborhoods.

23/6/26, 12:43 pm23 reposts126 likes

Republicans stripped all that language out and are throwing billions at Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk for expensive, slower, satellite service they had either ALREADY DEPLOYED, or already planned to deploy. Curiously I don't think any major outlet had bothered to explain this all yet.

one bit of annoyance: last election season you might recall Republicans made a giant stink about how this program was a shoddy boondoggle. Ezra Klein did a whole podcast tour about it, mostly based on Republican complaints. Despite the GOP derailing the program, he hasn't talked about it since.

techdirt.comJon Stewart And Ezra Klein Help GOP Paint Infrastructure Bill Broadband Grants As A Useless BoondoggleWe’ve long noted how the 2021 infrastructure bill included $42.5 billion for broadband dubbed the Broadband, Equity, Access And Deployment (BEAD) program. Managed by the NTIA and individual s…

I read Klein's chapter on broadband and could immediately see his entire understanding of this program was based on bad faith Republican attacks on it. He then did a giant media tour (including Jon Stewart's podcast) where he made it pretty clear he didn't understand how any of this works:

Zvyozdochka 🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇬🇱

@zvyozdochka.bsky.social

"Technology neutral" was a playbook used by destructive conservatives here in Australia to destroy the original National Broadband Network (NBN). It was to be a full fibre roll-out but was brutalised into a mess of copper (!), satellite and wireless that is only now only slowly being undone.

Bill Callahan

@cycbill.bsky.social

Ohio's final BEAD plan hands 49% of the state's 83,000 approved BEAD locations to SpaceX, and leaves $450 mil in limbo. No media anywhere in the state has written a word about it. @davedewitt.bsky.social where are you?

infrastructure doesn't get clicks, so the national press just doesn't cover it. and the oligarchs have fired all the local beat reporters.

lartigue@bsky.social 🇨🇦

@lartigue.bsky.social