Recapping The Benton Foundation's Best-of-Breed Stimulus Event

Big thoughts from last week's discussion on how broadband stimulus dollars should be spent beyond the theoretical to shine a spotlight on specific applications that embody the kinds of projects these funds should be supporting. Bill Schrier, CTO for Seattle: Virtually the entire US is unserved -- the vast majority of Americans do not have access to world-class broadband over fiber. Chris Vein, CIO for San Francisco: broadband can't just be about access to the Internet as there also needs to be an emphasis on applications. Tim Nulty of ECFiber, a rural fiber project in Vermont: "We put a copper wire into every home 80 years ago, and fiber's both easier and cheaper to do today than copper was back then." Gary Evans of Hiawatha Broadband: In describing the projects his company may be applying for stimulus support he shared that the network they'll be building will cover 600 sq. miles of rural Minnesota. But more than just getting connectivity out there he cited how Hiawatha will be hiring local support to build, operate, and provide customer service for the network, and how they'll be employing the people who do the work as opposed to incumbents who often outsource that work. Donny Smith of Jaguar Communications, a rural fiber deployer in Minnesota: Jaguar has successfully received, utilized, and are repaying loans from the Rural Utilities Service. , The company has been profitable from day one. Yet unlike most larger companies, where the goal is to maximize profit, instead Jaguar simply seeks to be profitable.