I don’t think any BEAD projects have been approved for funding although the
states got money for planning. So no money to be sent back to the Treasury.
Yet.
I would hate to be an ISP that spent money on a BEAD project expecting to get
reimbursed, only to have the funding revoked. There’s already a court case on
whether the govt can stiff contractors who spent approved funds related to
USAID. And on a smaller scale, some USDA REAP grants are in a similar
situation although those are just on hold not cancelled yet. If the funding
was approved and a contractor in good faith spent some of the money, IMHO they
need to be paid for the work to date.
From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> On Behalf Of Bill Prince
Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2025 3:41 PM
To: af@af.afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] BEAD Fiber projects gone?
Who is they in this context? A lot of the theys are getting pink slips (or so
we are being led to believe).
bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
On 3/5/2025 1:35 PM, tpa...@ecpi.com <mailto:tpa...@ecpi.com> wrote:
Can they not tell states, you don’t need so much money to get everyone an
internet connection and give money back to the treasury?
Tushar
From: AF <mailto:af-boun...@af.afmug.com> <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> On Behalf
Of Ken Hohhof
Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2025 3:25 PM
To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <mailto:af@af.afmug.com>
<af@af.afmug.com>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] BEAD Fiber projects gone?
Unless they find a way to strongarm the states to give it all to Elon, I’m not
sure this is a huge change. I would expect states to still prefer fiber if
they got enough BEAD money to do it everywhere, or otherwise to lower the cost
point at which they use FWA or satellite until they have enough money to go
around. Seems like this is the way things were going anyway. I mean, if
you’re a state and the feds gave you $1 billion to spend, wouldn’t you spend
most of it on fiber except where fiber is really really difficult or expensive?
Unless there is pressure to get it done in 5 months instead of 5 years.
I would be shocked, shocked if all (or even most) fiber projects were gone.
What I’d worry more about is that the money goes to satellite in preference to
FWA. Seems like BEAD money to FWA would build infrastructure, while the way
BEAD would subsidize satellite like Starlink would be to cover part of the
monthly cost for X many years, in other words not a long term solution. Even
if they found a way to fund launching new satellites, they only last 5 years
and have to be replaced.
From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com <mailto:af-boun...@af.afmug.com> > On Behalf
Of tpa...@ecpi.com <mailto:tpa...@ecpi.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2025 3:12 PM
To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <af@af.afmug.com>
Subject: [AFMUG] BEAD Fiber projects gone?
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/commerce-to-overhaul-internet-for-all-plan-expanding-starlink-funding-prospects-74664efc#comments_sector
Thank you,
Tushar Patel
<mailto:tpa...@ecpi.com> tpa...@ecpi.com
<http://www.westernbroadband.com/> www.westernbroadband.com
(512) 257-2733
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