August 2009

On August 27, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) announced that they received almost 2,200 applications requesting nearly $28 billion in funding for proposed broadband projects reaching all 50 US states and territories and the District of Columbia.

Applications came in from a diverse range of parties including state, local, and tribal governments; nonprofits; industry; anchor institutions, such as libraries, universities, community colleges, and hospitals; public safety organizations; and other entities in rural, suburban, and urban areas.

"Applicants requested nearly seven times the amount of funding available, which demonstrates the substantial interest in expanding broadband across the Nation," said Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and Administrator of NTIA. "We will move quickly but carefully to fund the best projects to bring broadband and jobs to more Americans."

"The overwhelming response we received underscores the extensive interest in expanding broadband across the country. Rural communities clearly recognize that broadband can expand their economic opportunities and create jobs," said Jonathan Adelstein, Administrator, Rural Utilities Service, USDA. "The Obama Administration's goal is to target funds to serve areas of greatest need. The big demand for loans as well as grants demonstrates that we can leverage private investment with USDA's $2.5 billion to deliver the greatest bang for the taxpayers' buck."

This is the first round of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding aimed at expanding broadband access and adoption to help bridge the technological divide and create jobs building Internet infrastructure, with $4 billion available through loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations.

Imagine a state is going through a bidding process for a contract. It happens all the time. The factors that normally are taken into account are price, experience, that type of thing. Under normal circumstances, then, a bid with a high price and no experience in a given state might well lose to another bid with a lower price and lots of experience in a state. Unless, of course, the high bidder with no experience is Connected Nation. Then, as the Florida Department of Management Services showed last month, all bets are off. Last month, the state agency awarded the state contract for broadband mapping to Connect Florida, the newly established affiliate of Connected Nation. According to the Florida agency, Connected Nation's project cost will be around $7.1 million. On the other hand, the cost submitted by the second-place bidder, ISC of Tallahassee was half that - around $2.8 million.

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission launched three proceedings related to the wireless industry.

1) A Notice of Inquiry ("NOI") that seeks to identify concrete steps the Commission can take to support and encourage further innovation and investment in the wireless marketplace.

2) A NOI that seeks to enhance its analysis of competitive conditions in the mobile wireless market.

3) A on whether there are additional opportunities to protect and empower American consumers by ensuring sufficient access to relevant information about communications services. The third proceeding is actually broader than just wireless including the information available to consumers about: choosing a provider, choosing a service plan, managing use of the service plan, and deciding whether and when to switch an existing provider or plan for all communications services, including wireline voice and wireless services, as well as broadband and subscription video (cable and satellite).

Sinai just received his first summertime DC electric bill and is suffering some sticker shock. But he allows observes that the bill is: 1) confusing, 2) delivered too late for him to do anything about it, and 3) missing helpful hints about how to change his consumption in the future. He writes, "Real-time information about prices and usage is important—studies have shown that just providing information about energy consumption in real-time can change behavior enough to generate a 10% savings on your electricity bill. The Smart Grid holds the promise to make this a reality." There are many different approaches to building the communications networks that are an essential part of the Smart Grid. There are many different applications -- Smart Meters being just one -- that have different bandwidth and latency requirements, and there is no silver bullet. Commercial wireless networks will play a role, but there are also private licensed and unlicensed approaches that have their place too. But the nation will collectively miss the benefit of the Smart Grid if we can't get information to the consumers so they can act on it.