TMCnews Featured Article

Many have written and opined about what applicants have to gain by participating in the federal broadband stimulus program. Much less has been said about what they have to lose.

 

Given the detailed application requirements, many applicants dedicated significant human resources to enable application input from their legal, technical and financial executives, as well as to hire outside consultants. That means many applicants made significant investments in the creation of their broadband stimulus applications. While all are obviously hoping for a bid payoff on those investments, for others it could mean throwing money into a black hole.

 

It remains to be seen which column NewWave Communications, a cable company out of Sikeston, Mo., will fall into. The company, which serves just 115,000 customers in the Midwest and South, poured $80,000 into its broadband stimulus application request for $10 million.

 

Like all first-round applicants, NewWave is anxiously awaiting news from the federal agencies (which includes the FCC (News - Alert), NTIA and RUS) administering the broadband stimulus as to who will be awarded what slice of the $4 billion to be handed out during the first round of funding. That news is expected to be announced next month.

 

Those that don’t receive funds during the first round, however, will have a chance to request funds during the second and final funding round, during which the remainder of the $7.2 billion in stimulus funds is expected to be dispersed.