Charlotte, N.C., and Mecklenburg County seek stimulus funds for a shared broadband network

The city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have united to create a comprehensive broadband network for their governments, and officials think stimulus money is an ideal way to help pay for it.

They've acted quickly. The jurisdictions sent their grant application during the second application window, from Feb. 16 to March 15. Those awards won't be given until sometime between June and September. "We think we have a great story for our application, but I realize we'll be competing against a lot of other applications. So this is not a foregone conclusion that our idea is the best," said Dennis Baucom, director of Charlotte's Network Technology Services (NTS) Division. Baucom oversees a robust city/county public radio system that's distributed across more than 10 sites and supports 17,000 subscriber radios. It's an analog Motorola wireless voice platform that serves not only departments in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, but also those in neighboring jurisdictions.