Broadband stimulus – The application story

As I spoke with a variety of hardware vendors at ITEXPO (News - Alert) West in Los Angeles last month, I got a good sense of what that side of the communications world expects from the broadband stimulus plan, and how it is looking to support customers’ efforts to win funding. But, what I didn’t know was much about the process itself – though, if more than 2,200 applications are any indication, it worked at least reasonably well.

Of course, the funding is being primarily directed toward last mile providers – those that provide connectivity from the backbone to the end users – in underserved areas to provide those communities a new broadband alternative and allow them to become as connected as the rest of the country...