Are telephone companies giving up on broadband stimulus?

Telecom access equipment vendor Calix says its clients represent 40% of tier 2 and tier 3 US telecom providers. One quarter of those customers applied for broadband stimulus funding.

Those who chose not to apply fall into four categories: 1) Those who did not qualify based on the definitions set forth by grant program administrators, 2) Those who feared the strings attached to the funds, 3) Those who couldn't wait for competitive reasons, and 4) Those who are already executing on all cylinders and saw the stimulus as a distraction.

For the first two groups, many are still waiting on the fence to see how dramatically the rules change in the next round of funding - this includes some very large incumbent local telephone companies. For the service providers in the third and fourth groups, they continue to charge ahead with broadband expansion and upgrade plans, and in some cases have hastened their expansion and upgrade plans to counteract potential stimulus-funded incursions into their service territories.