Vice President Kamala Harris, previously appointed as Border Czar and criticized for her handling of border security, has now been tasked with another significant role in the Biden-Harris administration: connecting rural Americans to high-speed internet.
This initiative, launched in 2021, has cost American taxpayers a staggering $42 billion.
However, according to Gateway Pundit, the program has yet to yield any tangible results. After 985 days under Harris's leadership, not a single individual has been connected to high-speed internet through this initiative, and no Americans have reaped any benefits from this costly endeavor.
Brendan Carr, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, has openly criticized the Biden-Harris plan, which broadband infrastructure builders have labeled as "wired to fail."
In a letter to Gina Raimondo, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, thirty-two representatives of telecom companies nationwide expressed their concerns about the doomed fate of the Biden-Harris plan.
They wrote, "It is with both a sense of alarm and urgency that we write to alert you to the reality that growing numbers of the hundreds of local and regional rural broadband providers we represent are increasingly concerned about their ability to participate in the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which your agency administers."
The letter further highlighted the potential failure of the BEAD program due to the administration's approach towards its implementation.
The representatives urged Raimondo to take immediate remedial steps to ensure the program's success. They also criticized the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) guidance, which "strongly encouraged" states to set a fixed rate of $30 per month for the low-cost service option.
The representatives argued that this rate is "completely unmoored from the economic realities of deploying and operating networks in the highest cost, hardest-to-reach areas that BEAD funding is precisely designed to reach."
This situation raises questions about the effectiveness of the Biden-Harris administration's approach to rural connectivity and the use of taxpayer money. It also highlights the need for a more realistic and economically viable strategy to ensure that all Americans, regardless of their geographical location, have access to high-speed internet.
Login