Wireless Groups Urge NTIA to Seek Changes to Ohio BEAD Plan

NTIA should guide Ohio to revise its draft proposal for the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program to make it conform with NTIA policy on defining unserved areas, wireless groups said Monday. The Wireless ISP Association (WISPA), NATE, the Open RAN Policy Coalition and the Competitive Carriers Association sent NTIA a letter about the issue Monday. WISPA and the other groups said volume one of the state’s draft initial proposal has problems due to an Ohio budget bill (HB-33) passed earlier this year. Wireless groups had raised concerns with the state budget including a section removing wireless broadband from definitions of tier one and tier two broadband services for the purposes of getting grants (see 2307050064). The law “includes locations served by licensed fixed wireless broadband in the definition of ‘unserved,’ regardless of the quality of service delivered,” WISPA and the other groups said Monday: This is "a material change in policy -- one that could potentially add millions of additional unserved locations to the BEAD program if applied nationally at a time when many states are already deciding how to best stretch their BEAD allocations.” Treating areas with licensed spectrum as unserved would be inconsistent with the BEAD notice of funding opportunity, they said.