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Delays to BEAD pressured a Louisiana broadband building agency to layoff 80% of subcontractors, in keeping with the organisation’s co-owner
This text was initially revealed by Brad Randall, Editor of our sister publication, Broadband Communities
A broadband building agency in rural Louisiana has been pressured into layoffs on account of BEAD delays, in keeping with Josh Etheridge, the co-owner of EPC.
Etheridge, who based EPC together with his brother eight years in the past, is the most recent Louisiana enterprise chief to sound the alarm on delays to BEAD, the nation’s huge $42.45 billion effort to deploy broadband to all Individuals.
In a brand new letter, addressed to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Etheridge stated EPC was able to put boots on the bottom to start BEAD deployments on January 25.
Learn Etheridge’s letter to Lutnick right here
“However now? The market is frozen,” Etheridge wrote. “I’ve needed to launch 80% of our subcontractors. We’ve paused philanthropic giving, scaled again our chamber memberships, and sadly begun to make layoffs of our full-time staff.”
Because it was based, EPC has grown to incorporate greater than 160 full time staff, Etheridge wrote. Moreover, he stated the corporate had constructed a community of greater than 150 subcontractors.
Now, Etheridge says even North Louisiana-based EPC’s at-risk capital builds are “pulling again.”
“We had been poised for 300% progress,” he wrote. “We ready accordingly. And now—we wait.”
Etheridge’s letter, given to Broadband Communities on Monday, calls on the administration to not let “forms unravel every little thing we’ve constructed.”
“If this continues, you’ll have successfully weaponized a terrific ambition—meant to elevate up and rework rural America—towards the very individuals who consider on this administration,” his letter continued. “We supported our newly elected leaders— with our cash, our phrases, and our votes — believing you’ll assist us in return.”
‘And now? We hear nothing’
Louisiana has been extremely impacted by an ongoing evaluation to the Broadband Fairness, Entry, and Deployment (BEAD) Program known as by Lutnick.
In 2024, Louisiana notably turned the primary to award BEAD funds by means of a state program known as GUMBO 2.0 (Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Alternatives).
It was additionally the primary state to achieve approval for his or her preliminary BEAD proposal.
Now, Etheridge’s letter to Lutnick is the most recent from a Louisiana govt that warns about dire impacts from Lutnick’s BEAD delay.
With the letter, Etheridge now joins the CEO of Louisiana-based SkyRider Communications and David Herring, the founder and CEO of ClearPath Fiber, as the most recent firm leaders sounding the alarm.
Based on Etheridge, if the silence continues “it should say what no phrases ever may.”
“That we had been by no means actually understood, that our sacrifice was by no means actually valued, and that our votes and voices mattered solely when it was time to rely them — not when it got here time to honor them,” he wrote.
Like Herring’s letter final week, Etheridge stresses that Louisiana “did it proper.”
He stated his firm “adopted the foundations and “ran a clear course of.”
“No DEI mandates. Forty p.c below price range. Tech-neutral. No labor strings,” he stated.
Etheridge’s letter to Lutnick ends with the EPC co-founder telling Lutnick that “it’s not too late.”
He calls on Lutnick to “let Louisiana transfer ahead.”
“Let EPC construct. Let our individuals work,” he wrote. “Don’t let one other technology lose religion within the guarantees we had been raised to consider in. We’re nonetheless prepared. We’re nonetheless keen.”
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