Broadband Stimulus Notes
The window for applying for federal broadband stimulus funds opened Tuesday, though only for applications that are for less than $1 million and are delivered on paper, the NTIA said. The NTIA and the RUS won’t process electronic filings , which are required of all applications for more than $1 million, until month’s end, said NTIA spokesman Mark Tolbert. He said he didn’t know whether the agencies received any applications on Tuesday. Applications for the first round of awards are due by Aug. 14.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
----
Members of most ethnic groups value broadband connections similarly, despite wide variations in adoption, according to a study ordered by the Internet Innovation Alliance and released Tuesday. But the value put on broadband differs by other characteristics, like age and income, the study found. Subscribers receive about $32 billion in net benefits nationally -- much more than the price they pay, according to the study, which used transaction data and surveys.
----
FiberTower, the Rural Telecommunications Group, CompTel and Sprint Nextel filed a request for expedited consideration of their earlier petition seeking changes to rules for the TV white spaces. The group previously asked the FCC to permit the use of six vacant channels in rural areas for Part 101- type licensing of fixed wireless operations to be used for wireless backhaul. Congress has set aside $1.2 billion in broadband stimulus funds for infrastructure projects, including backhaul, the group explained, with the first applications due Aug. 14. But without a rule change, companies that want to use the white spaces for wireless backhaul would be unable to do so, the petition said. “There is now a critical need for the Commission to act immediately to permit use of the White Spaces to provide dramatically more cost-effective backhaul solutions, thereby facilitating the goals of the broadband stimulus funding programs,” the petition said. “The Commission can act expeditiously, through an order, on the narrow fixed, licensed use proposal raised in the Petition. Such action would help spur broadband deployment without any negative impact on the other reconsideration petitions involving more complex, controversial, and technical issues related to the White Spaces.”
----
A group of religious organizations named So We Might See will promote the use and availability of broadband around the country, the group said. The group, which includes the National Council of Churches, U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, the Islamic Society of North America and United Methodist Communications, said it hopes in its first campaign, called “Bring Betty Broadband,” to bring attention to those who still lack high-speed Internet. The mostly Internet-based campaign is named after the “a fictional-but- reality-based Betty, a new computer owner who lacks broadband access,” the group said.
----
NTIA should issue an addendum to the federal broadband stimulus notice of funds availability that makes connecting anchor institutions to high-speed Internet a much higher priority, said the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition in a letter to NTIA head Larry Strickling. The proposed addendum would require speeds higher than 100 Mbps, rather than the current requirement of 768 kbps, when connecting anchor institutions, and would give specific scoring points for projects that would connect the institutions, the letter said. Connecting anchor institutions such as schools, health care facilities, and libraries is a stated goal in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
---
The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is monitoring federal broadband stimulus money and its role in starting and expanding small businesses, Chairman Mary Landrieu, D-La., said. Landrieu said the funds are a “step in the right direction to ensuring small businesses facing geographic barriers have the ability to create jobs and compete globally.” ----
Communications law firm Fletcher Heald & Hildreth assembled a broadband stimulus group to help applicants pursue the $7.2 billion in federal broadband stimulus funds, the firm said Monday. The group is made up of 11 of the firm’s lawyers who “are familiar” with the application process, the firm said on its blog.
----
Maps of broadband service around California are at www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/Telco/Information+for+providing+service/B roadband+Availability+Maps.htm. The maps are intended for use by parties applying for grants from the California Advanced Services Fund as well as for federal stimulus funds from the NTIA and the RUS, said Public Utility Commission member Rachelle Chong to Twitter followers. The maps, prepared by the commission, are updated regularly, Chong said.