I doubt it went down like the anecdote says, because if someone got
funding for infrastructure they didn't build then someone would be in
jail. You don't get an award and suddenly have a pile of cash that you
can run away with. Usually you build something with your own money and
then get paid back for it afterwards. If someone truly took the money
and ran off then they also managed to convince everyone involved that
they actually built something which would be a blatant act of fraud. To
do it you'd have to come up with a lot of fabricated invoices and POs
and it would all fall apart in the first audit (because I guarantee
there are mandatory audits). I'm not saying nobody ever did it, but if
they did it they had galvanized testicles and they fled the country
afterwards.
My direct experience is only in NY State, but I was in a weekly
conference call for the state broadband program and they were suspicious
SOB's. They would fret over any apparent inconsistency and get brutal
about it. As I recall we changed the number of pole applications so it
was lower with one power company and higher with another. This was just
a correction, but we were grilled about it to make sure we weren't
trying to redraw the build area. One operator got screamed at on this
conference call and had his funding pulled because he wasn't making
adequate progress and couldn't adequately explain it. Charter Cable was
the only funded party not in that conference call. They had their own
separate handlers for some reason.
-Adam
On 12/16/2020 1:29 PM, James Howard wrote:
As I said anecdotal evidence. My recollection was that was how they
grew to be the size they are now……
*From:* AF <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of * Adam Moffett
*Sent:* Wednesday, December 16, 2020 12:14 PM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] SpaceX RDOF boondoggle?
Where did they do that in the past?
Frontier built a lot of infrastructure through NY State funding
programs. If they tried shenanigans like that, NY State would screw
them to a wall. Not sure how RDOF works.
On 12/16/2020 1:02 PM, James Howard wrote:
Historical anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that they will get
the money, buy another company (or companies), declare bankruptcy
again and still there will be no FTTH in the areas they took the
cash for…….
*From:* AF <[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Adam Moffett
*Sent:* Wednesday, December 16, 2020 11:33 AM
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] SpaceX RDOF boondoggle?
Is it better to fund Frontier FTTH and risk them being evil,
incompetent Frontier or better to leave rural WV unserved? It's
easy to sit back in our comfy chairs and say Frontier doesn't
deserve that money, but then what do we do after not giving it to
them?
On 12/16/2020 12:24 PM, Jason McKemie wrote:
It should probably be a requirement that you aren't under
bankruptcy protection if you're going to be getting public
money. Plus Frontier is just generally incompetent, hence the
bankruptcy.
On Wed, Dec 16, 2020 at 10:58 AM Adam Moffett
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I saw the senator's complaint. I can't speak to
Frontier's competency, but Frontier threw their hat in the
ring to voluntarily serve unprofitable areas with
government assistance. I'm betting the senator's
complaint is moot because nobody else wants that job.
On 12/15/2020 12:50 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
I forget who was complaining that SpaceX was getting
RDOF money to serve areas like universities and
airports, but FreePress is complaining about the same
thing.
Keep in mind this is FreePress, which likes
criticizing Internet policy a lot. Also winners still
have to submit their long forms.
https://www.freepress.net/our-response/expert-analysis/insights-opinions/broadband-boondoggle-ajit-pais-886m-gift-elon-musk
<https://www.freepress.net/our-response/expert-analysis/insights-opinions/broadband-boondoggle-ajit-pais-886m-gift-elon-musk>
I also saw that a WV senator was objecting money to
Frontier which she said was not competent to deliver
gigabit service in her state.
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