I don't recall when the NTIA submission was made in relation to the submissions we made. Yeah, this is a big time slush fund for most states.
________________________________ From: AF <[email protected]> on behalf of Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, May 11, 2026 11:19 AM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] things I don't understand about BEAD Did you have to resubmit after Utah submitted their proposal to NTIA? Or was this negotiations with the state before they finalized their plan and submitted it to NTIA? As far as saving money for the state to use as it wishes, that seems to be how the states are viewing it, kind of a slush fund for whatever they want as long as it’s vaguely broadband related. Not sure I like the sound of that. And it’s almost like some states viewed it as a zero sum game, cut back on the fiber deployment and they get that money for other fun stuff. While other states still wanted to build as much fiber as possible within the budget. From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 11, 2026 12:55 PM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] things I don't understand about BEAD We had to redo our application several times. But we got more locations each time while the whole project covered fewer total locations. I think the benefit of the bargain did save some money on construction thus saving it for the state to use as it wishes. Starlink is under fire and might not get any of it. They did not want to provide acceptable service and want a waiver which they didn't get. In reality all of the locations could be served by Starlink. But with the heavy fiber emphasis, that is not the desired outcome. We will presumably get paid for crossing all these locations in front of the dwellings. Not to provide service. We home some of them take service, but we will make good money, hopefully, by just building the network. With essentially free outside plant, we could pricewar to the bottom if we wanted to. ________________________________ From: AF <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of Ken Hohhof <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Monday, May 11, 2026 9:22 AM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [AFMUG] things I don't understand about BEAD 1) Why is NTIA still reviewing the proposals from Illinois and California? I believe Illinois submitted its plan at the end of September 2025 and California at the end of December. How can it take over 7 months? Are they reviewing and forcing rebids on all the individual awards? Is it because these states intend to spend almost all their allocations? Did Texas get approved because they only plan to spend <40% of their allocation on infrastructure. 2) How did the “Benefit of the Bargain” reset save money, if the remainder of the $42.5 billions will just be spent on non deployment projects? I don’t see how this saves the taxpayers any money unless they claw back some of the appropriated funds. I keep assuming this will happen, but nobody seems to be advocating it. 3) What exactly do we get for the BEAD funds going to LEO satellite? How is this not just a handout to SpaceX and Amazon? Can’t people just sign up for Starlink now? How will BEAD funds change things? Not trying to advance an agenda by “just asking questions”. I genuinely don’t know the answers. Like Yul Brynner sings in The King And I, “is a puzzlement”.
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