NTIA Says BTOP Delivered on Broadband Promises

In a speech at a BroadbandUSA regional broadband workshop in Portland (Maine), National Telecommunications & Information Administration head Lawrence Strickling was taking stock of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) broadband subsidy program that has drawn fire from congressional Republicans and some cable operators over how it spent $4 billion in subsidies, both in terms of potential misuse and of how targeted it was, or wasn't, to areas where there was no service. Strickling said the program financed 230 projects that deployed more than 114,000 miles of new or upgraded plant, as well as upgrading or launching public computer centers and promoting adoption. He said the new plant had connected "nearly 26,000 community anchor institutions such as schools and hospitals and installed or upgraded more than 47,000 personal computers in public access centers." Strickling also said that translated into "hundreds of thousands of people as subscribers to broadband services."