South Dakota groups apply for $250 million in broadband stimulus

Among the stimulus dollars still to be pumped into the economy: $4 billion in grants and $3.2 billion in loans to expand broadband Internet access to underserved areas. The feds have received 1130 applications to build "last-mile" services—the projects that lay the cable or erect the towers that get signal to people's houses and businesses.

A quarter of those applications have come from companies and organizations looking to extend WiMAX wireless systems. Nationwide, WiMAX vendors have submitted $1.6 billion worth of requests for stimulus funding, out of a pile of last-mile funding requests totaling $14.2 billion...