A bill introduced in the Senate this week, would require any federally-funded transportation construction to trench fiber alongside

The $7.2 billion set aside by the government for the broadband stimulus package isn’t the only bucket of money for telecom to tap into. Case in point is the “Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2009” introduced to the Senate this week, which would require any federally-funded transportation construction to also trench fiber along the road.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, (D-Minn.), and Mark Warner, (D-Va.) sponsored the bill, which calls for highway crews to put in conduits and fiber—might as well, as long as the road is torn up anyway...