D.C. Memo: WISP CEO Compares Virginia Broadband Funding to ‘Mob Organization’
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Virginia: War without bloodshed has broken out in Virginia over broadband funding. Alex Phillips, CEO and General Manager of RBNS.net, has raised numerous concerns about the award of broadband grants in the Old Dominion, claiming fiber ISP All Points Broadband (APB) has exercised undue influence in accessing taxpayer funds while not keeping commitments to deploy broadband in rural areas like Page County in the Shenandoah Valley. “Rural Virginians and all taxpayers deserve open, honest, and effective broadband programs – not a system that rewards failure, political connections, collusion, and misrepresentation. I am ready to provide supporting documentation and urge you to act swiftly to restore integrity to Virginia’s broadband initiatives,” Phillips said in a six-page, undated memo obtained by Policyband. Based in Harrisonburg, Va., RBNS.net is a wireless Internet Service Providers or WISP. Phillips’ memo – which raised numerous concerns about the influence of APB CEO Jimmy Carr – was sent Aug. 13 to broadband offices in Richmond and Washington, D.C., including NTIA and the FCC. “Local providers like RBNS, who were ready to commit significant matching funds and had a proven record of rural service, were blocked from even offering proposals to counties like Page. County officials told me directly that they were not allowed to review or accept proposals from anyone other than APB,” Phillips said. At one point, he compared the broadband funding and permitting process in Virginia to a “Mob organization just doing whatever it wants with no regard to law and personal property rights.” A spokesperson for APB declined to comment.
Saipan: Arielle Roth, say hello to your first BEAD scandal. Maybe. In a place far from Roth’s NTIA office at the Commerce Department – how about 7,800 miles away – a telecommunications executive could be fueling the BEAD program’s first public scandal, though some key details are missing. Christine Baleto, President & CEO of Docomo Pacific in Saipan, has asserted that the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), has disregarded NTIA guidance in awarding at least one BEAD grant. CNMI, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, was to receive $80.7 million in BEAD money under the Biden administration’s rules. Docomo, according to Baleto, bid on a BEAD project that it lost to a competitor whose bid was about 18 times higher. “Based on our evaluation of the CNMI [Broadband Policy & Development Office] announcement, it appears that there was a blatant disregard for the criteria which the Trump Administration had required all states and territories to follow in determining program awards,” Baleto said. “As a matter of record, Docomo Pacific, Saipan submitted a complete, program conforming, technologically viable, cost-efficient solution for expedient deployment of broadband in each underserved/non-served sector throughout the CNMI … (More after paywall.)
