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By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 9, 2009 - On Friday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced seven new state recipients of the state broadband data and development grant program. These grants fund state efforts to map broadband availability and speeds. Each state was asked to pick a designated entity – either a state body or a non-profit organization – that would develop a plan for how broadband mapping would be conducted. Of the seven states awarded grants on Friday, two choose to fully internalize their process and have state agencies control the mapping. In Alabama, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs was tasked; they received $1.4 million for broadband data collection and mapping activities and $463,000 for broadband planning activities both for over a two- year period. In Washington State, the Department of Information Services received $1.7 million for data collection and mapping and almost $500,000 for broadband planning activities both for over a two-year period. Wyoming and Idaho, by contrast, choose to contract their mapping to the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, a Seattle based non-profit. Wyoming received $1.3 million for data collection and mapping over a two-year period and $500,000 for broadband planning activities...

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By the Staff of BroadbandCensus.com

The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for General Consulting Services (No. 2010-MBI-01). The goal is to pre-qualify firms to provide consulting services to support the goals, activities, and work products of the MBI. Companies may respond to one or more of the following categories as defined in the RFP:

• Broadband industry expertise
• Information, research, and financial analysis
• Procurement development
• Project management
• Community outreach and event planning, and
• Geographic Information Systems

Consultancy firms have a very short window of opportunity in which to send in their questions and other inquiries, by October 2. The institute will respond to all the enquiries by October 6. The procedure will be completed by end of November. More information can be obtained at: http://www.masstech.org/AgencyOverview/rfps/mbi0909/mbi0909.html To fulfill its mission, the MBI will be undertaking activities to: assess broadband penetration and access in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as to engage with stakeholders and broadband service providers, issue solicitations, develop broadband partnerships, apply for federal stimulus funds, make investments, and to monitor compliance and assess the impact of MBI’s...

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From BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report

WASHINGTON, August 31, 2009 – Although the NTIA and RUS are expected to release the names of the applicants for broadband stimulus funding later this week, the names of many of the applicants are emerging through press releases and through reporting by a wide variety of organizations. States playing active roles in the federal broadband stimulus are emerging as key aggregators of grant applications, including Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Mexico. Each of these states is responsible for bundling more than $100 million in applicants by governmental, private or quasi-public entities within their jurisdictions.

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[private_yearly]Among the major private sector players eying federal stimulus funds include KeyOn, a wireless broadband providers in Omaha, Neb., going for more $150 mil¬lion in funding to expand its WiMax network http://gigaom.com/2009/08/19/wireless-cos-ask-for-169-6m-in-stimulus-bucks-wheres-wire¬line/; Leap Wireless, which operates the Cricket brand of cell phone service, which is seeking $8.6 million; Yonder Media, with a rural WiMax plan, and possibly also Level 3. http://telephonyonline.com/independent/news/level3-broad¬band-stimulus-funding-0817/ SkyTerra’s application for funds is under the Sustainable Adoption Program, and it includes a letter of support from Motorola. http://www.skyterra.com/me¬dia/press-releases-view.cfm?id=216&yr=2009 Illinois is shepherding one of the most substantial group of applicant...

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By Ryan Womack, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2009 – Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachwoski announced on Wednesday new senior staff appointments FCC's Office of Communications Business Opportunities and Office of General Counsel as well as Media, Enforcement, and Wireline Competition Bureaus.

The OCBO Director will be Thomas Reed, Of Counsel at K&L Gates LLP. Mr Reed's practice has specialized in regulatory issues affecting women and minority-owned businesses, and was also Legal Counsel to the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

A second K&L Gates attorney, Carolyn Williams, will join Reed as Senior Deputy Directory of OCBO.

Leadership Council on Civil Rights vice president Mark Lloyd will join the commission as Chief Diversity Officer, and also will hold the title of Associate General Counsel.

William Lake, most recently in the spotlight as head of the FCC's DTV Task Force, will be Chief at the Media Bureau, assisted by Deputy Chiefs Robert Ratcliffe and Kris Monteith. Ratcliffe was previously Deputy Chief at the Enforcement Bureau, where he was head of media enforcement. Monteith previously served as Chief of the Enforcement Bureau and Deputy Bureau Chief for Outreach and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau.

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From BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2009 – This week is likely to be chock-full of broadband-related developments, with rules from the NTIA expected on Tuesday, a Vice Presidential announcement in Pennsylvania scheduled for Wednesday, and a Federal Communications Commission meeting on broadband slated for Thursday. Meanwhile, states and cities are continuing their extensive engagement in the question of broadband data and mapping. In fact, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute announced on Friday afternoon that it would issue its request for proposals on broadband developments on Monday – positioning their state to beat the federal government to punch. The RFP will be available today, and responses are due on July 8, 2009. Other states are holding strategy sessions about how to best tap into the funds this week. Similarly, New York City earlier this month unveiled two requests for information about broadband service and delivery. [more...]

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By Andrew MacRae, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com

NEW SALEM, MASS., May 26, 2009 – Governor Deval Patrick (D) on Tuesday designated the Massachusetts Broadband Institute as the “eligible entity” for receiving broadband data funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Patrick spoke with Massachusetts Broadband Institute Director Sharon Gillett, and with Rep. John Olver, D-Mass., at an event at which the institute unveiled a new interactive survey, built as a Google Maps mashup. In addition to the institute, a non-profit entity, serving as the entity responsible for receiving broadband data funding from the federal government, the officials said that the institute would be responsible for aggregating Massachusett's applications to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to “ensure a balanced portfolio of the state’s needs reaches the NTIA.” In the interactive survey, Massachusetts residents and businesses are asked to provide information about the speed, price, availability of the broadband that they receive at their location. In addition, residents are invited to comment on their service. Since January 2008, BroadbandCensus.com has been collecting data about what it calls the Broadband SPARC: Speeds, Prices, Availability, Reliability and Competition. The data about the the local Broadband SPARC is freely available on BroadbandCensus.com under a Creative...

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From BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2009 – One key area of the broadband stimulus package in which states are certain to have an impact is in the area of collecting and releasing information about local broadband deployment. In this area, no state has advanced as far as fast as has Massachusetts, where Gov. Deval Patrick (D) signed legislation last August granting $40 million in bond authority for the state to ensure broadband connectivity to all parts of the Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Broadband Institute was originally set up to administer a state-only program with a strong focus in western Massachusetts. It now faces the prospect of accessing about five times that amount, based upon the hypothesis that state funds might well be able to serve as the 20 percent matching grant for federal stimulus funds. [more...]

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Subscribers may download the BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report below. [private_monthly] broadband-census-weekly-report_5-25-09 [/private_monthly] [private_yearly] broadband-census-weekly-report_5-25-09 [/private_yearly] If you are not a subscriber, you may sign up for a 4 week free trial.