[RTC List] Internet Stimulus Grant Givers Want CommunityCoalitions

[larry at northcoast.com]

Interesting article (and very timely to our discussions yesterday):

 

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce are
on the verge of publishing guidelines for $7.2 billion in economic stimulus
grants for high-speed Internet projects around the country. A Commerce
Department official said Friday that the agencies are hoping the rules
encourage communities to bring their disparate groups into coalitions -
hospitals, colleges, public safety groups, community centers, etc. "A large
broadband pipe allows for lots of silos in various communities to come
together," said Mark Seifert, a senior adviser at the Commerce Department's
telecommunications unit. "We are trying to incentivize that sort of forward
looking thinking for those communities."  

Companies that could benefit from Internet grants and loans include midsized
businesses such as Level 3 Communications Inc. (LVLT), wireless companies
like Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), and possibly large incumbents like Verizon
Communications Inc. (VZ) or AT&T Inc. (T). Large Internet service providers
like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA, CMCSK) worry, however, that
government grants will be used to fund competitors in areas where they
already have invested.

Seifert said regulators want to "encourage private investment and
competition" in grant making, signaling that they might at least be open to
funding projects in areas that already have some limited access to the
Internet. He didn't elaborate.  Seifert also said people hoping to win
Internet grant money should look to other areas in their communities where
economic stimulus money is being spent, such as road projects.  The
Transportation Department is most likely to have in hand "shovel ready" road
projects where it would cost relatively little extra cash to lay Internet
cable under new asphalt. The economic stimulus measure put $27.5 billion
toward highway construction.

Seifert also said housing projects would be a good place for Internet
stimulus money. If the Housing and Urban Development Department is reworking
the electrical connections in a housing facility, why not fund a company or
nonprofit to wire those units for the Internet at the same time?  Commerce
and USDA share the $7.2 billion for Internet grant and loans, but the two
agencies are hoping to make the application process a seamless one for
people seeking the money. The two agencies want to produce a common
application that will leave the complexities about the source of the funding
to their staffs.

Officials also want to create an easy-to-use, accessible electronic form for
the broadband grants.  "We're trying to simplify this. I want to make sure
we underpromise and overperform," Seifert said. Government grants
traditionally "come with a lot of strings attached," he said. "Those are
things we can't write ourselves out of."

Seifert spoke at a conference on broadband policy sponsored by legal
publisher Pike & Fischer.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090619-706738.html

 

 

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