NTIA, RUS To Delay Announcement Of Broadband Bid Winners

The National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) and Rural Utilities Services' (RUS) broadband stimulus grant and loan programs under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program will delay by at least a month announcements of winners of broadband stimulus grants. "We're going to take a few more weeks here to get this right," said NTIA head Larry Strickling. "I will not fund a bad application." NTIA had been preparing in the next couple of weeks to announce the first winners in what will now be a two-step process of handing out billions in stimulus money for broadband mapping, adoption and service to unserved and underserved areas. That will now be pushed to early December. At a Senate oversight hearing, Sen John Kerry (D-MA) asked what NTIA's approach would be to anchor institutions. The NTIA's Strickling said that those institutions may be where the government should be concentrating much of its money, particularly in the initial round of funding. Strickling said he expected NTIA to be awarding grants for speeds substantially higher than 768 kbps, which he said was just a floor for applying (it is also the FCC's definition of high speed). He pointed out that applicants got extra points for higher speeds.