Impressions from the first broadband stimulus workshop | Telecompetitor

I attended the first Broadband Stimulus workshop in suburban Washington D.C. today. This workshop was a first in a series of upcoming broadband stimulus workshops taking place over the coming weeks in multiple locations across the U.S. Today’s workshop provided much more detail on both the RUS Broadband Initiative Program (BIP) and the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). Having the broadband stimulus program notice of funds availability (NOFA) published helped provide these details. While the workshop offered much more insight into these programs, there still remains many unanswered questions.

The workshop started as most of these government sponsored workshops do – with a series of government dignitaries – both federal and local – touting the importance of broadband. Listening to them, you’d think broadband is taking its rightful place next to apple pie in American lore. One conclusion I drew from these opening remarks is that the stimulus program is more than just about rural. More than a couple speakers representing urban interests, including Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson, indicated their intention to pursue stimulus funding for ‘unserved and underserved’ populations in Prince George’s County, Maryland . Prince George’s county (the location of the workshop) is about as far from rural as you can get (well, at least most of it)...