Amend 'shovel-ready' requirement: Broadband stimulus applicant

The federal government, which expected to announce the first round of broadband stimulus grant and loan recipients in just a few weeks, should consider receiving applications one U.S. region at a time toavoid overwhelming receiving servers and creating last-minute havoc for applicants, an official with a Hermosa Beach, Calif. company that’s been building mobile networks in underserved areas since 1999 told TMCnet in an interview today.

According to Matthew H. Merritt, N.C. and S.C. director of NTCH-Cleartalk, it’s difficult at this stage – after struggling to learn and navigate the government’s application process – to recommned a drastic changes. Yet it would be helpful to omit or modify a requirement that has applicants describe their service areas by census blocks...