Broadband Stimulus Notes
Despite the long-stated target date of Tuesday to issue rules for applying for NTIA and RUS grants and loans under the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus program, the guidelines may not be announced until later this week, several industry sources said. The agencies working with Vice President Joe Biden, the Obama administration’s point-man for stimulus spending, may announce this week the official “notice of funds availability,” several sources told Communications Daily. Biden will discuss broadband investments at a media event Wednesday in Erie, Pa., with Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, Biden’s office announced Monday. The vice-president’s office did not return a call for comment on its plans for announcing grant terms. -- TW
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National broadband mapping efforts must include wireless broadband to give an accurate picture of broadband availability, CTIA said in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. Some broadband mapping projects that have already begun or are being considered will not be mapping wireless broadband, making the maps incomplete, CTIA said. Also, Commerce’s NTIA should be careful not to burden broadband providers with mapping efforts that duplicate the FCC’s, which collects deployment information from broadband providers, it said. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act requires that up to $350 million of the $7.2 billion broadband funds be spent on broadband mapping.
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Many federal broadband stimulus projects won’t be required to follow the “Buy American” provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act thanks to a waiver that Commerce Secretary Gary Locke granted June 19, which was released on Friday. The waiver was largely expected after some major broadband equipment makers lobbied and filed comments saying the provision would drastically slow the grant process. Locke decided to issue the waiver because a lot of broadband infrastructure and service equipment is made in other countries, and determining the origins of each component would complicate the application process, according to the waiver document. The waiver applies to switching, routing transport and access equipment, end-user devices and billing systems, but does not include fiber or coaxial cables, cell towers, or other equipment that is made in “sufficient quantities” in the U.S.