Broadband grant frustrations mount -- Urgent Communications article

More broadband stimulus awards were handed out this week, but the process continues to move at a snail's pace, despite the fact that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) program now have issued rules for the second round and declared that applications are due March 15.

NTIA and RUS are in charge of doling out a total of $7.2 billion in grants and loans to bring broadband to unserved and underserved areas in the U.S. The first-round recipients will receive $4 billion, but only a fraction has been awarded...