Colorado Revokes Over $100 Million in Broadband Funding for Maverix

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 25, the Colorado Broadband Office revoked approximately $103 million in BEAD broadband funding previously tentatively awarded to Maverix Broadband and plans to re-bid the 10,232 broadband service locations originally assigned to the company. The state government's previously published final BEAD plan showed that Maverix's corresponding allocation was approximately $103.02 million, one of the largest single corporate allocations in Colorado's round of BEAD funding.

The Colorado Broadband Office stated that after receiving two reports in May of this year, it froze payments related to Maverix projects and launched enhanced oversight. The state subsequently said its investigation found problems in financial management, certain uses of funds, vendor payments, and the delivery of purchased services and materials, and pushed to terminate six of the company's still-active grants, while referring the matter to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of the Treasury's oversight body.

The $103 million in BEAD funding revoked this time had not yet actually been disbursed to Maverix. Maverix had previously obtained other broadband construction funding from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Capital Projects Fund and Colorado's High Cost Support Mechanism program, of which approximately $9.17 million had already been disbursed. The state government is currently seeking to recover approximately $3.2 million in related receivership and bankruptcy proceedings.

Maverix disputes the state's conclusions. Company co-founder David Lindauer said the company has submitted a large amount of fund-use materials to the state government over the past several months and, in a 22-page response document, comprehensively challenged the calculations, determinations, and investigation findings in the September 21 monitoring report. Maverix stated that it can provide invoices and related project documents to prove the use of funds. The state has not withdrawn its decision.

The projects previously undertaken by Maverix were mainly aimed at building fiber networks in underserved areas of Colorado. Early state CPF project materials show that the company had laid middle-mile fiber between Kiowa and Elizabeth and connected local residents to high-speed broadband. After this BEAD funding revocation, Colorado plans to reorganize a competitive allocation under NTIA's existing procedures to cover the more than 10,000 locations originally planned to be served by Maverix.