Satellite Is the Best Use of BEAD Funds, but Only in Some Markets: Panelists
Satellite-based internet is unavoidable as part of the BEAD program, speakers agreed Wednesday during a Broadband Breakfast webinar. Steven Hill, president of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, and David Zumwalt, president of WISPA, downplayed concerns that BEAD will lead to “two tiers” of broadband, with fiber on top and other alternatives not as good. While most BEAD money is still expected to fund fiber, as much as 15% will pay for fixed wireless and 20% for low earth orbit satellite broadband, speakers said.
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The two-tier argument “is a beautiful canard,” Zumwalt said. Most wireless ISPs got started “because someone lived on the wrong side of a telephone pole” and were at the edge of service availability, he said. “Fiber is expensive, especially when you get into rural areas.”
“We need to get as many consumers connected as soon as possible to a high-speed connection, and satellite needs to be a part of that solution,” Hill said. If it costs $10,000 for a fiber connection to a single consumer, “maybe that’s not the best investment” of BEAD funds, he said. “We have to keep an open mind” on what’s best for consumers.
For those in Boston, for example, satellite broadband probably isn’t the answer, Hill said. But for people in rural Alaska, “satellite is going to be absolutely the game-changer because it’s less expensive and faster to deploy.” In many markets, the best coverage will be a “blend” of technologies, he added.
Hill also said satellite technology is “only going to improve” and will become “closer and closer” to the coverage offered by fiber. “You’re going to see thousands of satellites being deployed in the very near future,” he said. “We’re just at the beginning stage of this. I really don’t think we’re going to see this weird, two-tier system.”
He conceded that operators need to launch more satellites to meet BEAD requirements in some markets. The more consumers in a geographic area, the more “that’s going to eat up bandwidth for each satellite.” Satellites move at faster than 17,000 mph and provide coverage to consumers for a few seconds at a time, he noted. If there aren’t a lot of satellites in a particular area, broadband speeds “are going to slow down.”
Right now, there are about 5,700 LEO satellites in orbit, Hill said. In the next year to 18 months, “you’re going to see three to five times that.” Geostationary orbit satellites will also play a role in coverage, with the next generation being “three to five times more powerful than anything that’s currently up there,” he said.
WISPA members “deploy all technologies to be able to reach customers,” Zumwalt said. They're working in areas that are difficult to reach “for whatever reason,” including in urban markets, he said. Once all technologies are given a role, “you can begin to rationalize, not only on costs, but also in time, what it takes to actually reach the truly unserved.”
Satellite, fixed wireless and fiber will all have a part in BEAD, Zumwalt said. “You’re going to see a lot of innovation, as you’re seeing right now, in the vendor community” as technologies compete. About 45% of WISPA members have major fiber deployments and want to use BEAD funds to build out their fiber footprints, he noted.
Satellite broadband doesn’t provide local infrastructure or employment, Zumwalt added. “It’s an incredibly important part of the puzzle, but it’s not the only thing that’s happening.”