FCC Clarifies Rural Health Care Program

FCC CLARIFIES RURAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The FCC has released an order to provide clarification of the Commission's order establishing a rural health care pilot program to encourage the provision of telehealth and telemedicine services throughout the nation. Specifically, the FCC finds that 1) pilot program applicants may request and, if selected, may receive funding to support up to 85 percent of the cost of connecting state and regional broadband networks to the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, Inc. (Internet2) or NLR; and 2) an applicant that proposes to connect its state or regional broadband networks to Internet2 or NLR may either a) pre-select Internet2 or NLR, or b) seek a competitive bid for the provision of nationwide backbone services from Internet2 or NLR. To ensure the success of the pilot program, we expect that Internet2 and NLR will interconnect or peer with each other.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-6A1.doc