Monday, November 9th, 2009
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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Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
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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Monday, August 31st, 2009
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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Thursday, July 30th, 2009
By Douglas Streeks, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
July 30, 2009 – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced Tuesday a partnership between the Massachusetts Broadband Institute and the Executive Office of Transportation to bring broadband to unserved and underserved communities in western parts of the state.
The partnership is expected to build on the existing MassHighway project, extending six 1.25-inch fiber-optic conduits from Connecticut to Vermont and enabling “collaboration across state borders in a variety of areas, including public safety, education, e-health and access to Internet2,” according to a statement by the state.
MassHighway will use two of the conduits for its intelligent traffic system, a system designed to improve the flow of traffic throughout the state.
The other conduits will be reserved for economic development and expanding broadband networks in Western Massachusetts. The institute will own the fiber in one of the conduits with plans to lease the other three for future development.
This is the first major infrastructure investment the institute has made, according to MBI Director Sharon Gillett.
A report by the staff at
iBerkshires said that “Interstate 91 will literally become the backbone of broadband expansion efforts” in Western Massachusetts through the partnership.
The report added that the project has secured rights-of-way and approval from...
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Saturday, July 25th, 2009
By Douglas Streeks, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
July 25, 2009 – The non-profit group Open Cape Corporation this week announced that it had selected RCN Metro Optical Networks to build a fiber-optic network supporting Cape Cod, and that it will apply for an infrastructure grant under the broadband stimulus funds.
RCN Metro Optical Networks, a division of RCN, a competitor to cable companies in selected urban markets, was selected to build and operate a 300-mile fiber network across Southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, and several islands.
Comcast's cable internet service and Verizon Communication’s digital subscriber line service are currently the only providers offering broadband on Cape Cod.
In order to build the network, said the release, OpenCape “intends to apply in August for a $40 million grant under the federal Broadband Technology Opportunity Grant (BTOP) program of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”
According to a report by Shan Li in the
Cape Cod Times, the plan is “more ambitious than earlier versions, with 300 miles of cable instead of 210 and a price tag of $40 million instead of $20 million, along with the data center in Barnstable and wireless relay points originally proposed.”
"We had been under the assumption we could connect to the Internet...
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Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
By Ryan Womack, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, June 30, 2009 - The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative on Monday issued a statewide Request for Proposal (RFP) concerning contract oversight in its expanding broadband development.
In cooperation with Massachusetts Broadband Institute, the RFP hopes to "solicit responses from firms or teams of firms with experience providing consulting services on the development and operation of broadband infrastructure, writing requests for proposals, outreach and evaluation of industry partners and creating business plans and pricing models."
Applying consultants ought to be able to perform the four tasks listed by the Collaborative:
- establishing 60 firms as possible future broadband partners;
- develop scoring methodology and initial briefing event with future partners;
- develop sustainability plan for projects; and
- incorporate partnership and sustainability into an RFP for broadband development in western Massachusetts after the state submits its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant application around August.
The list of 60 possible future industry partners might "include both wired and wireless retail broadband service providers, wholesale broadband service providers (including those associated with electric utilities), and broadband construction firms," said MTC.
The $40 million given to MBI by the Broadband Act is hoping to only be a first step in broadband expansion.
February's ARRA funding – up to $7.2 billion for broadband...
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Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
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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Monday, May 25th, 2009
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.
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