U.S. broadband stimulus round two & implications for WiMAX operators — WIMAX

When announced in early 2009, the U.S. Broadband Stimulus Program was seen as a potential boon for WiMAX and broadband wireless access (BWA) providers. With both licensed and unlicensed equipment readily available, WiMAX was seen as the perfect solution for providing low cost broadband connectivity quickly and efficiently, and reportedly made up 25% of the last mile proposals submitted in the first round of the process. Overall, the U.S. Broadband Stimulus Program was so popular that over 2,200 applications totaling $28B were submitted during the first round, nearly 4 times the combined $7.2B funding allocated for the programs. The agencies were also flooded with over 11,000 public comments and challenges, many from entrenched incumbents looking to block potential new entrants into markets already served.

With the exception of announcements in the last few weeks, very little funds have been awarded under either program and little, if any, have been awarded to wireless or WiMAX projects. Of the $7.2B in the combined programs, one year later only $900M has been awarded under the programs. Furthermore, most of the awards had been given to a hand-full of "Middle Mile" programs consisting of high-speed fiber initiatives connecting the national internet backbone into community anchor institutions such as schools, libraries, community colleges and other institutions of higher education...