TMCnews Featured Article

However, the administration also announced that only one more round of funding applications will be accepted, versus the original two planned. 

“This will get the funds out the door faster to stimulate the economy and create jobs,” Jonathan Adelstein, once with the Federal Communications Commission and now an administrator with the Rural Utilities Service, or “RUS,” said. “It gives applicants and communities a greater opportunity to come together to form networks and find more creative ways to connect to the global economy through broadband.”

It’s no surprise the Obama administration took this action, especially with such a high jobless rate. With over 2,200 applicants from the first round of the broadband grant loan program, the administration has asked for $28 billion in funds all told—although only four billion is available in the first phase.

Additionally, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or “NTIA,” is also offering grants in three specific areas through its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. 

According to NTIA officials, most of the money will go to expanding middle mile capacity in underserved and unserved areas around the country; another chunk will go to funding computer centers, and a last, smaller pile of cash will encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service. 

The bids for broadband funding range from possible plans to build an undersea middle mile fiber optic network to service all communities, citizens, corporations and public entities that make up the rural Aleutian Islands of remote Alaska to a smaller scale Oklahoma middle-mile project for schools to share teachers via a broadband distance learning program.

While evaluating all of the proposals, both NTIA and RUS want feedback on how to structure applications for the next and final broadband stimulus round from the Request for Information, or “RFI (News - Alert).” 

“Such projects also have the potential to stimulate the development of last mile services that would directly reach end users in unserved and underserved areas,” RFI officials said. “Additionally, installing such middle mile facilities could have a transformative impact on community development by driving economic growth.”