Smells Like Solydra

Bankrupt wireless firm probe kept closed - Washington Times

“Open Range has discontinued operations,” the company posted on its website recently. “Please seek another Internet service provider NOW.”

The message is a far cry from the promise hailed by the company and government officials alike when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a record loan guarantee package for Open Range late in the Bush administration.

Plans called for the company to provide broadband service to more than 500 rural communities in 17 states. Out of the $267 million loan guarantee, the USDA released $78 million to Open Range. The company repaid just $4.5 million before filing for bankruptcy in October.


Open Range’s network to nowhere draws fire - POLITICO

Open Range Communications, the now-bankrupt broadband company that last week became the target of a congressional probe, at first was rejected by the George W. Bush administration for a federal broadband loan to help connect rural communities.

Why the Colorado-based company eventually was awarded $267 million — the largest loan in the history of the Rural Utilities Service’s broadband program — will most likely become a key question for lawmakers.

“I don’t understand why this thing was even entertained,” a former government official familiar with the financing program at RUS, a branch of the Agriculture Department, told POLITICO. “To me, it just looked too faulty” paired with a company that “had no track record of being able to deliver.”

Some question whether the FCC also had a hand in the downfall of the company. Open Range relied on leasing airwaves from Globalstar, a satellite company. But Globalstar lost permission from the FCC during the fall of 2010 to send land-based signals.

The FCC provided Open Range continued and uninterrupted access to Globalstar’s airwaves through a series of waivers, but in its bankruptcy filing, the company cited the troubled partnership with Globalstar as part of the reason it folded.