BEAD Grant Reimbursement

Now that Broadband Offices have started the process of soliciting Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant applications, I thought I’d discuss a topic that anybody who wins a BEAD grant is going to care about—how a Broadband Office will reimburse grant winners for making expenditures. You might think this is straightforward, but unfortunately it is not. Grant offices are taking a wide variety of approaches to how they reimburse internet service providers (ISPs) for grant expenditures. Why does the method of payment matter? It probably doesn’t to giant ISPs. They can float the cash and can wait to get paid. But slow payments can be deadly to a smaller ISP. I have one client who turned down a state grant when he was presented with a contract that showed there would be a 3–4 month delay in payments. This ISP knew he wouldn’t be able to make payroll with that kind of delay and feared having vendors hounding him during the entire grant process. The bottom line is that if you are going for BEAD grants, you might want to ask now how the broadband office plans to pay you. Hopefully you are in a state where you will like the response.