Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Maverix Broadband pushed back on claims the company has misused millions of dollars in public funding that resulted in the Colorado Broadband Office freezing all projects linked to the company, including rescinding a federal grant for more than $100 million. The report caught the Parker-based internet provider off guard because they had been responding and providing hundreds of documents to state officials for months, said David Lindauer, the company’s cofounder.

Despite unprecedented broadband investment, the share of U.S. households relying solely on cellular data and mobile devices, or mobile-dependent households, increased from 11.9 to 14.1 percent between 2019 and 2024. This report introduces the MDH concept, which captures the "double whammy" of limited data and limited screen size, and examines its determinants before and after the COVID-19 pandemic using Census tract-level data.

The Colorado Broadband Office announced recent actions taken to protect taxpayer funds following an inquiry into the misuse of state and federal broadband grant funding by Maverix Broadband, Inc. After receiving whistleblower reports, CBO took quick action to freeze payments to Maverix, launch an inquiry, move to terminate six active grants, and rescind more than $100 million in provisionally awarded Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment funding that has not gone out yet. 

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is urging the Trump administration to overhaul implementation of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program to ensure BEAD meets its statutory goal to connect every American home and business with reliable, high-speed internet.

According to interviews and research from the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, state broadband officers are exhausted by the challenges and shifting dynamics of implementing the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. Leaders from the Benton Institute have interviewed over 30 SBOs so far about what it is taking to implement BEAD. And Dr. Revati Prasad of the Benton Institute talked about the takeaways from those conversations in a recent Fiber Broadband Association webinar.

Brandy Reitter, the executive director of the Colorado Broadband Office since February 2022, stepped down after giving the agency two days’ notice. “Yes, unfortunately, OIT received Brandy’s resignation. She will be missed and we appreciate her service to the state,” Erin Jeffreys, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Information Technology, home to the broadband office, said in an email.

The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program has lived a highly dramatic life since Congress created it as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.The most recent high-stakes drama involves the state of California.

California is on the verge of accepting $1.86 billion in federal broadband grant funds, despite the Trump administration telling states they cannot enforce net neutrality rules on any Internet service provider that gets a piece of the grant money.

A federal judge in July gave digital equity advocates a partial victory against President Donald Trump, stopping his attempt to unilaterally kill a multibillion-dollar grant program Congress created. But U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, in a 35-page opinion, also agreed with the administration that it was unconstitutional for the government to use race or ethnicity as the basis to award money under a program created to expand internet skills and access.

The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program and the Native Entity Grant Program, designed to support Native Entities in implementing essential broadband adoption and usage programs, are open for application. Indian Tribes, Alaska Native entities, and Native Hawaiian organizations are eligible applicants for both programs.