Second Round Of Broadband Stimulus Already Headed For Disaster

[Commentary] The National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Rural Utilities Service are asking for suggestions on how they can improve the process for the second round of broadband stimulus funding. So far, the vast majority of the discussion around what needs to be improved in this process relates to one of three things: 1. Eligibility criteria that were too narrow. 2. Applications that were too complicated. 3. Not enough time for applications to be completed. What no one seems to be acknowledging is that if the only tweaks that are made to this process are incremental steps to allow more people more time to more easily apply, then there's going to be a lot more applications to review in round two. It wouldn't surprise me if the total topped 5,000; I don't think 10,000 is even out of the realm of possibility.