Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
By Lou Carlozo, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com
CHICAGO, November 18, 2009 - One striking sentiment dominated this week’s convention of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners: The federal government remains on nearly as steep a learning curve on crafting the future of broadband as many state agencies, and the best work ahead will likely get done when public and private concerns team up.
“Of course more needs to be done, and they’re still learning [in Washington] how to reliably and effectively get the funds out,” said David Svanda of Svanda Consulting in Clarksville, Md., and a past president of NARUC.
“It’s an ongoing learning process, and they clearly have their feelers out to learn more,” said Svanda. “I think they’ll take very seriously what they hear here. You couldn’t have two better people on the case.”
By “they,” Svanda meant Larry Strickling, of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and Jonathan Adelstein, of the Rural Utility Service.
These two key Obama administration broadband players have only been on the job only since the summer: the Senate confirmed Strickling in June, and Adelstein in July.
They have their hands full intrying to figure out how to distribute $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus funding by September 2010.
Are Strickling...
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
By Lou Carlozo, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com
CHICAGO, November 17, 2009 - As the 121st meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners kicked off Tuesday, the usual presentations on energy efficiency, commodities and electrical grid jiggering couldn’t match the drama and dilemma surrounding a topic that didn’t even exist a few decades ago: the future of broadband, and broadband stimulus money in particular.
That’s a $7.2 billion question—that number representing the amount of money federal agencies can deploy before September 2010. And the good news coming from three key federal players is that the money will start coming to states as soon as early next month, with grants rolling out through early 2010.
The first rounds dished out by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the U.S. Rural Utilities Service (RUS) won’t nearly match the demand, though. With 2,200 applications on file, Washington would need many times the available funding. “It’s just stunning the creativity and industriousness in these proposals,” said Lawrence Strickling, NTIA’s director. “It’s sad we don’t have the money to fund them all; we were oversubscribed seven times.”
The good news is that the NTIA and RUS have a request for information (RFI) out, with a November 30...
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, November 10, 2009 - The two government entities charged with distributing $7.2 billion to expand broadband deployment and adoption said Tuesday they are officially seeking public feedback on how to effectively get the funds to the applicants who should be receiving them.
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service were assigned by Congress in January to administer the program but no awardees have yet to be named.
On Tuesday
RUS and NTIA said they planned to award the funding in just two rounds to increase efficiency and better accommodate applicants.
A statement from the agencies noted that the first round of the grant and loan programs produced about 2,200 applications requesting nearly $28 billion in funding, which is almost seven times the amount of funding available at this time.
Though NTIA originally intended to start announcing grant recipients in November, Larry Strickling, head of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in late October that the program has been
falling behind.
Currently, the agencies do not anticipate announcing the first broadband stimulus grants until at least mid-December but will then announce more awardees on a rolling...
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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, November 3, 2009 – Between the government’s slowness in announcing recipients of its broadband stimulus grants and the process of dolling out the funds once the awards have been made, applicants can expect a long wait ahead of them.
The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, one of the government agencies Congress charged in January with distributing $7.2 billion to expand broadband deployment and adoption, will not announce who will receive the first broadband stimulus grants until at least mid-December, according to an NTIA spokeswoman. The agency then plans to announce more awardees on a rolling basis, she added.
The only group that knows for certain that it won’t be getting funds is the controversial ACORN Institute, which describes itself as a group that uses “research and training to address the problems in low-income communities identified through years of community organizing.”
Its applications have been deemed "ineligible for funding” by the NTIA. See
the listing on NTIA’s Broadbandusa.gov web site.
The ACORN Institutes de-funding is the result of
guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget to executive branch agencies cutting off funding to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or...
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Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
By Mercy Gakii, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, October 28, 2009 - Assistant Secretary of Commerce Lawrence Strickling said Wednesday that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will work to apply the lessons from the first round as it moves on to the next phase of broadband stimulus applications.
“The NTIA and RUS are finalizing a new request for information that will help us shape the round two process,” Strickling said, testifying before the House Small Business Committee. He also said that at least 15 percent of the applications for stimulus funding came from small and disadvantaged businesses.
He added that the agency’s request for information will solicit the public’s views on how the first round worked for applicants and what changes and clarifications should be made for the second round.
Strickling touted the role that broadband plays for rural communities, and also for small businesses. “If you are a small business owner without access to high-speed internet, you are effectively operating with one hand tied behind your back,” Strickling said.
He said that application process involves giving additional points to applications from economically disadvantaged businesses, and those who have collaborated with them.
Jonathan Adelstein, administrator of the Rural Utilities Service at the Agriculture Department, said that 36...
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Monday, July 27th, 2009
By Ryan Womack, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., July 27, 2009 – The top official at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said Monday that that now is “a new era” for broadband data, including public data about carriers that provide high-speed internet service.
“Whatever the tradition is, this is a new era,” said Strickling, the assistant secretary of commerce, speaking at the Virginia Summit on Broadband Access at the Piedmont Virginia Community College here.
He said that he hoped and expected that carriers will allow information about the areas in which they serve to be made publicly available, as they do in Canada, he said. (Carriers on Ireland’s national broadband map also allow themselves and their service areas to be identified.)
Strickling also said that broadband incumbents that seek to challenge broadband applicants who argue that their areas are “underserved” will have to make such information public – and in the same format as the broadband data collection efforts underway nationwide.
“We need the data: I think it is a national imperative in which this data be collected,” said Strickling, responding to a question about whether carriers will in fact provide states with the information necessary to create state-level broadband maps.
“I think it is a...
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Monday, June 29th, 2009
From BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report
WASHINGTON, June 29, 2009 – The broadband policy world took a number of significant steps forward last week with the confirmation on Thursday of Larry Strickling as the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and of Julius Genachowski as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Officials from telecommunications and equipment providers, including Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent and others, also scored a significant victory when the NTIA on Friday issued an order that exempts broadband switching and routing equipment from the “Buy America” provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Strickling is expected to begin work on Monday, and not a day too soon. The White House has long promised June 30 as the date by which the Commerce Department agency would release rules pertaining to the $7.2 bil¬lion broadband stimulus package, with $4.7 billion flowing through the NTIA. Sources at the NTIA said the rules will be released on either Tuesday, June 30, or by Wednesday, July 1, at the latest.
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
From BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2009 – Last week’s confirmation hearings for Federal Communications Commission Chairman-designee Julius Genachowski highlighted the fact that, for months now, there’s been a federal broadband troika-in-waiting, and that none of them have yet made in through the Senate.
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