Guest Column: ACA Connects’ Message to Washington: Let’s Build

By Grant Spellmeyer, President and CEO of ACA Connects

The ACA Connects Summit is right around the corner. Our Members will come together in Washington, D.C., on March 4-6 with a clear agenda to connect America. Let’s build!

Today, our Members—the small and medium-sized independent operators in all 50 states—are offering connectivity to nearly 30 million households. In the past 5 years, we’ve expanded coverage by 64%, representing an estimated 11.2 million households passed. The untold stories behind these numbers are the new businesses on Main Street, better health care in rural communities, booming tech industries in mid-size cities, new tools for precisions agriculture and so much more. Our Members are looking to the future and excited for opportunities to invest more in our communities.

ACA Connects – America’s Communications Association is hard at work being the voice of our industry in the policymaking world. On the heels of our major court victory that stopped the government’s unwarranted internet takeover, Summit 2025 marks a critical opportunity to advocate for long-term and high-impact solutions to ensure our Members have certainty to innovate and invest for decades to come.

At the top of our priority list is speeding up the deployment of broadband.

Last year, some of the last bills passed by the House of Representatives were bipartisan ideas to increase agency coordination and expedite federal reviews to the permitting process. ACA Connects’ message to lawmakers was this — keep going, and let’s do more to empower American businesses who are eager to build.

For lasting and long-term investments, we will advocate for permitting solutions that help ensure every dollar our Members spend is used to connect more people to high-speed internet, not comply with unnecessary red tape.

To send a clear signal for American providers to keep investing in their networks, we also need to put an end to the whiplash created by a constant threat of rate regulations. Our Members have a strong record of providing affordable broadband and keeping our communities connected. Tying our hands with government-imposed rates will hurt our ability to deliver the high-quality service our customers rely on.

We also support fixing BEAD and putting the program back on track.

ACA Connects raised the alarm last year that harmful man- dates, like rate regulations and prevailing wage obligations, are jeopardizing BEAD’s success. This historic program was designed to empower states to close the digital divide in the hardest-to-reach places. No one knows these underserved and unserved areas better than ACA Connects Members. We are on the ground with deep roots in our communities and ready to invest federal dollars wisely to get the job done.

ACA Connects looks forward to discussing these priorities and more with policymakers, lawmakers, and industry experts from both sides of the aisle. We want shovels in the ground in the immediate future but there is even more at stake. These solutions will support America’s communications and economic leadership for decades to come. We won’t let this historic moment go to waste. See you at the Summit!

Grant Spellmeyer is President and CEO of ACA Connects – America’s Communications Association, which advocates for more than 500 companies, including fiber-to-the-home providers, cable operators and municipalities.