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Broadband.money is built with love by Ready.net — a team of engineers, scientists, and NTIA alumni united by the goal of helping broadband providers win.

We built Broadband.money to help broadband providers, and the people who help broadband providers.

For providers working to connect more families to better broadband, our goal is to help you get the resources you need to grow, and to make the most of your time while doing so.

For grantors, administrators, consultants, and vendors, we made Broadband.money to help you deliver more and better value to broadband providers during the great transformation underway in the U.S. last mile.

Everything about the last mile is about to change

America is gearing up to make its largest-ever (and possibly last major) investment in broadband. Winners will get the resources needed to ensure connectivity for families. It’s possible that losers stay underserved forever.
 

NTIA’s program is brilliant, but daunting for many

We applaud the inclusiveness and leadership from Congress and the NTIA, who make it clear that providers of all walks and sizes are welcome to apply for BEAD — our nation’s broadband “moonshot.”

Yet, in reality, the complexity and circumstances of the historic programs make it unlikely that many smaller, innovative, and non-traditional providers will choose to participate, and if they do, many cards will be stacked against them given the monumental resources required to build the grant applications.

Moonshot means one shot to get it right

NTIA’s Access for All is noble, but even if every penny of the public money is optimized and distributed to capable providers willing and able to get the job done effectively, it still won’t be enough to be enough to bring future-proof access to all Americans. It’s vital that we work together to bend the arc of the public resources toward highest and best use.

Historically, broadband grant programs haven’t always led to broadband. Our public investments in broadband to date have by and large gotten caught in the coffers and pockets of too-big-to-fail national incumbents.

This is our last opportunity to get the job done – by getting the resources to providers willing and able get the job done.

Speaking of “B”s… Ready.net is a Public Benefit Corporation. NTIA’s bold vision for the program spoke to us. The complexity is necessary, and something custom-built software can help navigate. We agree with the stringent requirements in order to help ensure highest and best use of our nation’s largest-ever broadband investment, and believe the public resource is in good hands with their leadership.

And yet there are major obstacles to participation we must dare to confront if we are to see the full potential of the visionary program:

1. Many small, non-traditional, and local providers view the upcoming grant programs as unobtainable without a large grants team and access to low cost capital. BEAD will fail to move the needle on America’s digital divide without their participation. Software and robust data from many sources, united by intuitive interfaces, can help make BEAD accessible to skilled providers of all walks and sizes.
2. Successful broadband grant applications require participation from many stakeholders, but outdated workflows relying on “passing docs back and forth” add months to the process and destroy opportunities for synthesis. Those costs are unacceptably high in BEAD. It’s essential that applicants are utilizing a common platform to help keep all stakeholders on the same page. You shouldn’t need to rely on outdated, messy “please see attached” email document workflows. You should be able to invite collaborators and stakeholders to your application, and work together from the same page.
3. The new bar for ongoing reporting & compliance is deemed as excessively high for many prospective participants – high enough to deter applications from otherwise willing and able providers. This is why Broadband.money automates reporting and compliance throughout the grant lifecycle – to make it easy to keep stakeholders on the same page and stay compliant, without hiring an army. You shouldn’t be forced to hire an army for ongoing reporting & compliance.
4. Matching funds up front – 25% or higher in most cases – is a useful signal for filtering qualified applicants and a good way to force-multiply our nation’s public investment. But that’s an extraordinarily high bar for most providers. You shouldn’t need a monster balance sheet or wizard-level access to the capital markets in order to participate in the game-changing grant programs. If you have what it takes to get the job done, it should be easy for you to get the matching funds you’ll need to prove up front with your application.
5. Much, much more than maps: In 2023, anyone can draw a broadband map. But mapping is just the first step in a 1,000 step journey to getting folks connected. That is why Broadband.money’s integrated grant application system is full lifecycle: from initial application research, through curriculum-based Q&A matched with federal and state rules, to data-driven narrative answers that help you – the busy provider – and anyone who you trust to help you – collaborate throughout the full grant lifecycle – all the way through the final month of ongoing reporting & compliance. It should be easy for you to get the geospatial insights you need – from researching your area, to knowing precisely how your state prioritizes, to data-driven narrative answers at your fingertips.

That’s why we built Broadband.money.

It’s for anyone working to solve the divide

Broadband.money is for all types of provider – RECs, telcos, mom & pops, municipal networks, fiber roll-ups, utility companies. Any provider who deems grant funding as essential to scaling their operation to serve more families should at least take a look.

Broadband.money aims to help providers of all walks and sizes, together with their chosen partners, build the best possible proposals around their objectives, the realities of their area, and their state’s vision within the federal guidelines.

While Broadband.money users span very tier, with proposals spanning all 56 states, territories and D.C., it’s built to foster partnerships in every possible sense: from public private partnerships, to new ways for tier 1 titans to team up with local providers.

Thank you again for all you’re doing to get folks connected. We see you. Please ping us 🥁 if we can be of any help.

The Ready.net team