Think big when swimming in the stimulus pool « KGP Broadband Stimulus Blog

The recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes either an enormous amount of pork-barrel spending or is an injection of much-needed capital for a faltering economy. It all depends on one’s perspective.

For small telcos and cable operators, the key sections from the stimulus bill, of course, are those two parts that carve out $7.2 billion to improve broadband availability and penetration rates in this country. The pool of money is divided into two pools: $2.5 billion to be funneled through the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and $4.7 billion to be delivered via the National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA)...