Updated: ARRA Broadband Initiatives (March 23)

The complexities of relationships between federal, state, and local governments, the private sector and sovereign Indian tribes emerged during a Monday afternoon round table on the role of states in the NTIA-RUS grant process.

Through public hearings on broadband stimulus, it is starkly apparent that demand for spending broadband stimulus funds far outstrips the $7.2 billion in available funds. These hearings, by the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), have assembled officials and interested parties to examine and address the gap.

The $350 million broadband mapping program required by the recent stimulus bill would be set back if there is widespread participation in it by a group called Connected Nation, according to a new report issued by Common Cause, the Media and Democracy Coalition, Public Knowledge and Reclaim the Media.

Phone companies faced off against consumer groups on Monday, in a debate over how $7.2 billion in federal broadband spending should come with a mandate that Internet networks remain open to all traffic.

In a joint proceeding, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (Department of Commerce) and the Rural Utilities Service (Department of Agriculture) are requesting comment on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Broadband Initiatives.