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By Ryan Womack, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2009 - Members of Congress on Thursday questioned the efficacy of the grant criteria set out last week by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Rural Utilities Service. During a hearing before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture, representatives expressed skepticism over ill-defined criteria in the the joint Notice of Funds Availability the agencies released last week Mark Seifert,  Senior Advisor to NTIA administrator Lawrence Strickling said the NOFA“set up a fairly stringent system” for determining which areas are most in need, but will be flexible in allowing applications to be made efficiently and give all stakeholders a fair shake.  NTIA and RUS will simultaneously evaluate applications in order that there will be “no lag-time,” he said. And if an applicant doesn’t meet the criteria for one agency's program, Seifert said that would not exclude an applicant from the other program if judged more appropriate. The unique process of creating a joint NOFA has allowed NTIA and RUS to "leverage our collective experience," he said. And RUS Deputy Undersecretary Cheryl Cook said the effort has been a "significant interagency work." Cook and RUS assistant administrator David Villano assured...

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By Ryan Womack, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2009 - Last Friday's nationwide transition from analog to digital television doesn't mean a quick refocusing of manpower to broadband stimulus efforts at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, agency officials said. Coupons for the analog-to-digital converter boxes used to facilitate the switch for households receiving over-the-air signals are valid 90 days from the transition date, said NTIA spokesman Bart Forbes. This means NTIA must still receive and redeem coupons, and the joint NTIA-FCC call center will be open to field consumer questions well into September, he said. All the work going smoothing the last wrinkles of the transition means that the agency must continue to focus on it “into November, really.” NTIA is also the lead agency responsible for distributing $7.2 billion dollars -- it has responsibility for $3.7 billion of that amount, versus $2.5 billion allocated to the Agriculture Department -- in federal stimulus dollars. All funds must be distributed by the September, 2010 deadline set by Congress in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, which President Obama signed into law this past February. Of the funds the Act provides for broadband stimulus programs, $350 million are set to go towards broadband data and mapping...

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News

By Andrew Feinberg, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com, and Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, February 13, 2009 – Advocates for federal promotion of broadband access breathed easier after a congressional conference committee reported a final version of the economic stimulus bill with $7.2 billion for broadband – more than either chamber had allocated individually. The conference report provided for a total of $7.2 billion dollars for broadband programs. $4.7 billion will be administered by the Commerce Department, and $2.5 billion will be administered by the Agriculture Department. The House version would have spent $6 billion on broadband. Although initial version of the Senate bill boosted the total to about $9 billion, the final Senate-passed measure put the total at $7.1 billion. The legislation is designed to increase broadband adoption and deployment in unserved and underserved areas, and in schools, libraries, and to low income Americans and the elderly. The bill also encourages deployment of broadband services to improve public safety communications among first responders. Some observers feared that the broadband section of the stimulus bill might be cut from the final conference report. But rather than reduce the amount of funding or remove the program entirely, the conference report included compromises on the amount and direction of funding...

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Commentary

By Drew Clark, Editor and Executive Director, Broadband Census.com

WASHINGTON, February 9, 2009 - In a guest op-ed in Ars Technica, I caution that the broadband infrastructure investments planned as part of the economic stimulus package need transparency if they're to be effective. Follow this link to the article. Or visit the main page of Ars Technica.