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Govtech.com summaries the first round of NTIA Broadband Stimulus awards with the following:
The NTIA will disburse the following Public Computer Center awards:
Arizona: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records — $1.3 million grant with matching funds of $320,000 to enhance existing facilities in more than 80 public libraries throughout the state. The project expects to deploy more than 1,000 computers to meet growing demand.
Massachusetts: Boston — $1.9 million grant with matching funds of $477,000 to expand computer and Internet capacity at the city’s main library and 25 branches, 16 community centers and 11 public housing sites.
Minnesota: Regents of the University of Minnesota — $2.9 million grant with matching funds of $741,000 to enhance broadband awareness and use for residents in four federally designated poverty zones in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Washington: The Inland Northwest Community Access Network (Tincan) — $1.3 million grant with matching funds of $753,000 to establish three new public computer centers and expand 14 existing centers throughout Spokane’s poorest neighborhoods to serve more than 5,000 additional users per week.
The NTIA will disburse the following Sustainable Broadband Adoption awards:
New Mexico: New Mexico State Library — $1.5 million grant with an additional $591,000 in matching funds to increase broadband adoption and promote computer literacy and Internet use among vulnerable populations, Hispanic and Native American users, small businesses and entrepreneurs through training and outreach statewide.
Washington: The Inland Northwest Community Access Network — $981,000 grant with an additional $728,000 in matching funds to increase broadband adoption through basic and advanced computer skill training, as well as community-based outreach campaigns to highlight the benefits of broadband for vulnerable populations in Spokane.
The Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service will disburse the following Last Mile and Middle Mile awards:
Alaska: Anchorage, Rivada Sea Lion — $25.3 million grant with $6.4 million of leveraged funds; 4G high-speed broadband internet service availability to more than 9,000 unserved locations in a 90,000-square-mile area where these southwestern Alaska inhabitants are living at subsistence level.
Hawaii: Big Island Broadband/Aloha Broadband Inc. — $106,503 loan with matching funds of $87,405 to bring broadband services to an unserved area in the northern part of the islands where there are nearly 600 residents and businesses.
Colorado/Nebraska: Peetz, Colorado, Peetz Cooperative Telephone Co. — $1.5 million grant; expansion of existing infrastructure utilizing a combination of technologies. This project will make broadband service available to as many as 550 locations in the service area.
Michigan: The Chatham Telephone Co. — $8.6 million grant to bring high-speed DSL broadband service to remote, unserved businesses and households within its rural territory; service that is comparable to the DSL service provided in its more populated areas.
New Hampshire: Bretton Woods, The Bretton Woods Telephone Company — $985,000 grant for 20 Mbps two-way broadband service to all potential customers and stimulate tourism in the area to substantially improve the local economy. This Fiber to The Premise service will be available to more than 400 locations.
New York: Potsdam, Slic Network Solutions (Nicholville Telephone) — a grant of $4.3 million and loan of $1.1 million for a 136-mile fiber-optic network reaching into five towns in rural Franklin County. This all-fiber network will deliver broadband voice, and IPTV services to remote rural areas. The network will offer service to more than 6,500 locations.
Ohio: North Central Ohio Rural Fiber Optic Network, Consolidated Electric Cooperative — $1,034,413 grant and $1,399,499 loan; and matching funds of $1,225,000. The funding is integral to a smart grid initiative and broadband service based on an open-connectivity fiber-optic backbone network.
Oklahoma: Southeast Oklahoma, The Pine Telephone Co. — $9.5 grant with an additional $4.6 million in private funds to provide services to an entirely remote, rural, unserved and severely economically disadvantaged community.
The Federal Communications Commission recently released a report regarding broadband coverage versus how many are using broadband internet access. They noted that in a few years the country will have a 95% coverage rate, yet adoption of the internet into the daily lives of Americans will lag behind that rate.
“Though broadband services will be available to almost 95 percent of U.S. households by 2014, many homes will still lack access to low-cost, high-speed options, according to a recent report commissioned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Despite the projected increase in availability, the study finds that the rate of adoption and the availability of truly high-speed Internet services will be much lower. While upgrades to cable broadband networks and new wireless technologies will help provide new options, government involvement may be the only way to keep U.S. adoption rates competitive with other global markets.”
The FCC further notes: “the Columbia Institute of Tele-Information, which prepared the report, estimates the current broadband availability rate at 91 percent. Broadband in America: Where It Is and Where It Is Going (According the Broadband Service Providers) provides a listing of all publicly-announced broadband plans and a comparison of the progress of these plans to their original scope and timeline. These plans are sorted by company and the nature of the broadband technology. Using this data, the authors estimate the state of U.S. broadband in three-to-five years, including the availability of both wired and wireless services. The forecast does not take into consideration the effect of the federal broadband stimulus effort or any other government broadband initiative that could increase adoption and accessibility.
By 2014, 95 percent of U.S. homes will have access to at least low-speed broadband services, according to the report. Of the homes that receive broadband services, however, up to nine percent only will have access inferior options with slower speeds. These options include satellite broadband and low-speed wired and wireless services. Satellite-based services tend to be slower and depend on unimpeded line-of-sight to the position of broadband satellites. The lack of convenient, lower-cost, high-speed Internet access will continue to depress broadband adoption over the next few years.”
Lastly, the report found that currently “63 percent of U.S. homes subscribe to a wired broadband service. The report estimates that this figure will grow to 69 percent in 2014. Adoption rates have slowed over the past few years as the market has approached saturation and consumer spending has slowed. Meanwhile, subscriptions to wireless providers are on the rise. The wireless broadband adoption rate is expected to pass 50 percent in 2013, up from the current level of 31 percent.”
Government support for wired infrastructure build-out or for new wireless technologies, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX, could boost the availability of high-speed options across the country. The 2009 Recovery Act included funds for broadband mapping initiatives to reveal the extent of state broadband gaps in access and speed. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has awarded Broadband Technology Opportunity Grants to 19 states and the District of Columbia.
Read Broadband in America: Where It Is and Where It Is Going (According the Broadband Service Providers) at: http://www.broadband.gov/docs/Broadband_in_America.pdf.
