Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Broadband stimulus: A tiny step forward

The February 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides a total of $7.2 billion to the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration to fund projects that expand access to and adoption of broadband services. First round award announcements began in late 2009.

As you might expect from a political process, stimulus money is funding a few gems and a lot of credible programs, but makes no fundamental change in policy or industry structure, thus the decline in our international position – at least with respect to broadband speeds, prices and availability – is likely to continue. Still, there are some rays of hope...