Broadband Stimulus Battle: The Backdoor Clause and Competing with Incumbents

[Commentary] Broadband stimulus funding rules allow existing service providers 30 days to review and challenge applications, saying they already provide adequate service in the areas an applicant's network would cover. Incumbents don't have to provide data down to the address level, they can pawn off smoke-and-mirror maps with relatively useless data. Incumbents only have to "reveal" advertised speeds. They can hide other data behind non-disclosure agreements. All this plays in their favor. The net of it all: incumbents could challenge the hard work applicants have done and what the applicants know to be a lack of meaningful broadband access - and win. At this moment, there are no means in writing for applicants to defend their proposals. The access to adequate broadband applicants aim to offer can be torpedoed by telcos gaming the system. What are you going to do to protect your turf? What can we collectively do to fight against the rule?