A Tongue River broadband company alleged irresponsible action on the part of Wyoming Business Council following a decision to fund its competitor. The complaint reached the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C., and Gov. Mark Gordon through a formal letter from FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly Nov. 25.

In an initial letter written by Tongue River Communications owner Robert Jacobson published on ACA Connects, he alleged the Wyoming Business Council provided Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funds to Tongue River Communications’ direct competitor, Visionary, without due process.

Wyoming Business Council Board of Directors approved 37 projects during an Aug. 14 special meeting to “bring faster, more reliable internet to ‘unserved’ and ‘underserved’ areas,” according to the project website.

WBC awarded funding to Visionary to build fixed wireless in Dayton, Ranchester, Arvada, Clearmont, Leiter and Ucross for a combined $1,725,550.08, in addition to 12 other locations around the state.

“The ConnectWyoming program was designed to use CARES Funds for rural broadband projects in an expedient manner,” said Michael Pearlman, spokesperson for Gov. Mark Gordon. “Given these time constraints, WBC staff relied on the most current information available from the FCC Form 477 database as its official/objective source of reliable service information to determine existing broadband capacity in the grant award areas.

“During the time period the committee and WBC were considering these projects Tongue River Communications’ facilities were not present on the FCC Form 477 database,” he continued. “This project was one of 34 projects awarded to 7 broadband providers around the State.”

In the letter published online, the Jacobson family said “the process by which Visionary obtained funding was a blackbox and an inside deal” with a lack of transparency and no notice to affected parties.

The WBC encouraged Wyoming internet providers Jan. 30 to provide contact information for a database.

“The database organizes internet service providers by county and includes contact information,” the Jan. 30 announcement reads on the WBC website. The final draft of the document will be used to ensure incumbent providers in a county receive ample notification of companies seeking rural broadband grants from the Business Council.”

By the deadline, the list showed Tongue River Cable, Collins Communications, Range, Century Link, Visionary Communications, ACT, Charter, Nemont Telephone Cooperative Inc. and Unite Private Networks, L.L.C. for Sheridan County providers.

“TRC did not respond or provide their contact information for this list,” Pearlman said.

Rob Hium, son of Robert and Lynda Jacobson and owner/general manager of Tongue River Communications, agreed with his parents’ claims of an “inside deal” with more than just a single member of the WBC, but instead listed several other members of the WBC Broadband Advisory Council benefitting from grant funding.

One member of the WBC Board of Directors, Allen R. Hoopes, is CEO of Silver Star Communications, a company that received a total of $14,481,311 of the ConnectWyoming funds for a fiber build for the rural areas that are unserved in Region A of Lincoln County.

“The only member of the Wyoming Business Council board of directors who is in the broadband industry recused himself from all votes pertaining to the ConnectWyoming Program,” Pearlman said. “I would also point out that that certain board member has no affiliation with Visionary.”

The letter sent to Gordon and the WBC board by the FCC shared concerns of overbuilding with the CARES Act funding, the WBC withholding applications and proposed coverage maps for the grant recipients and lack of opportunity to challenge the process.

“I am concerned that this lack of guardrails and needed transparency with respect to the applications will weaken public support for state-administered federal grant programs while perpetuating real broadband gaps in Wyoming,” O’Rielly said in the letter.

Pearlman said because of the limitations given in the CARES Act from Congress — that funding must be spent by the end of the year — there was not a challenge process, but instead used FCC mapping.

“We did however use the FCC mapping, the same mapping the federal government uses to distribute grants in unserved and underserved areas to deem them as such,” Pearlman said.

Ranchester Mayor Peter Clark said he has attended broadband educational opportunities and learned the FCC broadband map is self-reported and can be misleading.

The fight isn’t over for Tongue River Communications, who Hium said hadn’t heard from the governor’s office for at least a month following the allegations against the WBC and the FCC letter sent last week.