Broadband Stimulus Notes
The FCC said it started a blog called Blogband to stimulate public discussion about the development of a national broadband plan. The blog will chronicle the commission’s work on the plan. Ideas, comment and other discussions on the site are critical to the plan, Chairman Julius Genachowski wrote in the blog’s first post. The FCC also started using the microblogging site Twitter. The commission will tweet about plan progress and other work. Collecting information is important in making the plan, but “data means nothing if we don’t exercise good judgement about what it all means,” Blair Levin, the FCC’s plan coordinator, said on the blog.
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.
----
Correction: The deadline for applications for the BTOP program is 5 p.m. Thursday (CD Aug 18 p8).
----
SkyTerra is applying to NTIA for $37 million in federal broadband stimulus funds to develop and deploy wireless devices for public safety use, the company said on Tuesday. The company said it will invest an additional $9 million, slightly more than the required 20 percent capital expenditure for applicants for the funds. The devices will be able to communicate with the company’s satellites and 700 MHz public safety terrestrial networks, allowing public safety officials to use satellite communications when unable to use the terrestrial networks, SkyTerra said. The application included letters from public safety agencies in Texas and Florida describing their need for this type of device, it said.