Remarks of Assistant Secretary Arielle Roth in Ogallala, Nebraska, Announcing State's First BEAD-Funded Connection
Thank you, Governor Pillen. I’m honored to be here in Ogallala, Nebraska, to celebrate the first BEAD connection in the state. This milestone comes less than a year after the Trump Administration and Secretary Lutnick course-corrected BEAD and restored it to its statutory mission: ensuring universal broadband availability through competition, accountability, and respect for the law.
BEAD was signed into law in 2021, and Americans in towns like Ogallala waited for years for connectivity, as the prior administration pursued extreme technology bias and an extraneous social agenda that slowed the program’s execution and scared away providers.
This cost Americans like Deb Armknecht opportunities to connect with her seven grandchildren, improve her farm business, and access health care services.
The Trump NTIA accelerated BEAD by removing extralegal red tape and working with states to incorporate the Benefit of the Bargain reforms. And, consistent with the law, we embraced technology neutrality by opening the program to any provider that could meet the program’s performance requirements.
Today, we are seeing these reforms in action, thanks to our close partnership with Governor Pillen and his team, as well as the strong leadership of Nebraska’s congressional delegation, particularly Senator Fischer.
On a personal level, it feels especially fitting to celebrate the first BEAD-funded connection in the open plains of western Nebraska. This week, Jews across the world are reading the opening portion of the book of Numbers, which describes the organization of the tribes of Israel in the desert before the nation moves forward to the land of Israel.
One of the themes of the chapter is that a shared mission doesn’t require uniformity of roles. Each tribe contributed in different ways based on their strengths and circumstances.
The same principle applies to broadband deployment. BEAD’s mission is universal connectivity, but different terrains and communities require different solutions.
The mistake is when government insists that only one approach is legitimate regardless of the realities on the ground. By restoring technology neutrality in BEAD, we enabled providers to contribute according to their strengths, in service of a shared national goal.
It’s not an accident that this connection here in Ogallala is from an unlicensed fixed wireless provider, Vistabeam. Under the prior administration’s rules, this technology was deemed categorically unreliable and excluded from even competing. Today, Vistabeam is utilizing breakthrough technology by Tarana that can deliver gigabit speeds even in non-line of sight environments. And it is connecting consumers within months of BEAD approval, far quicker than the four-year timeframe Congress set for deployment.
Innovation of this kind suffers when government puts its thumb on the scale for one particular type of provider. In a field as dynamic as broadband, minimizing distortion is critical, because the most significant advancements in connecting rural Americans have come not from subsidies, but from technological innovation.
Americans don’t care which technology connects them—they just want broadband that works. Today, a fixed wireless provider is delivering connectivity to Deb Armknecht and her family in Ogallala at speeds that far outpace our requirements. Instead of stifling innovation, we’ve harnessed it for the benefit of Nebraskans.
Thank you again to Gov. Pillen and all of our partners here today. I’m proud to be working alongside all of you to achieve universal connectivity in Nebraska and across America.