WiFi for America’s heartland — Roll-ups roll out their plans « SmallCapWorld

The centerpiece on the federal government’s holiday table may be the surprisingly fast pace of repayment of bailout funds by the big money-center banks. There are also claims for job creation from spending the stimulus money, especially considering the initial jobs report for November showed only 11,000 jobs were eliminated in the month. But inevitably (this is Washington DC after all) there are also charges of money slipping through the cracks and — uh-oh — disappearing. And more than one boffin has noticed a cart-before-the-horse pattern to some stimulus programs.

The Rural Broadband stimulus package, for instance, is being administered by the RUS and the NTIA (Rural Utilities Service and National Telecommunications and Information Administration), neither of which has much experience with awarding big grants — and it may that neither of them has a MAP of which areas are underserved by current broadband suppliers. If you can stand the boredom, there is a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) with the revealing title: “Agencies are Addressing Broadband Program Challenges, but Actions are Needed to Improve Implementation.” (http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-80). Here is a take on the situation from The Industry Standard: http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/12/02/groups-urge-changes-broadband-stimulus-programs?page=0%2C0