Small ISP Questions Delaware's BEAD Awards
The state plans to spend its surplus BEAD cash on workforce development and network resilience projects.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28, 2024 – Talkie Communications, a small fiber-to-the-home Internet Service Provider, is asking Washington officials to reject Delaware's Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program awards unveiled a few weeks ago and require the state to re-open the application process.
In a Dec. 24 letter, Talkie's CEO raised several objections with numerous officials within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration – which has the ultimately authority to approve or reject Delaware's awards – and Joseph Wender, director of the Capital Projects Fund run by the U.S. Treasury Department.
CEO Andre DeMattia said one of his biggest concerns was that BEAD money will be used to overbuild 31 Talkie locations in Delaware that have already received broadband subsidy money from the Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF).
"Permitting Delaware to spend BEAD funds to overbuild RDOF areas duplicates existing commitments and wastes taxpayer resources," DeMattia said in the 18-page letter addressed to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. "As the Delaware Department of Technology and Information’s (DTI) is well aware, these 31 locations are not eligible for BEAD funding because the BEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) explicitly prohibits treating locations with Enforceable Commitments as 'unserved' or 'underserved.'"
Under Delaware's plan that still requires NTIA approval, Verizon received $17.4 million while Comcast committed to a project without financial support. Delaware’s $17.4 million spend – intended to bring broadband to 5,600 unserved locations – was well under its $107 million NTIA allocation.
The state plans to spend its remaining BEAD cash – that's about $76 million, by Talkie's math – on workforce development and network resilience projects. Spending the bulk the BEAD allocation in that manner was another justification to reject Delaware's BEAD grants, Talkie claimed.
"The whole point of the BEAD program was to improve the lives and prosperity of the unserved and underserved in rural communities. DTI should not be allowed to direct tens of millions of dollars to Delaware’s special interests/non-deployment initiatives and exploit the BEAD program," DeMattia said.
Talkie, based in Chestertown, Md., also offers wireless and pay-TV service. Its flagship residential fiber Internet plan starts at $79.99 a month for speeds up to 10 Gigabitsper second.
DeMattia sent his letter to a wide array of Washington insiders handling telecommunications. He copied all five Commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission (and many of their aides) as well as Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Co-Chairmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. An attorney for Talkie said the ISP had not heard back from DOGE.
Louisiana and Nevada are the only other states that have announced their BEAD grants.
Correction: The title of this article has been corrected to reference Delaware instead of Maryland.
