Communication
Companies already providing broadband “have extensive technical, financial, and managerial experience and expertise,” Curt Stamp, president of the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, told a meeting in Washington today. The program is part of the U.S. economic recovery package.
The gathering of regulators, industry officials and consumer groups at the Commerce Department is one of a series intended to help set rules for the program that Congress established at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The agency must award the grants by Sept. 30, 2010. Rules may be published by April, said Bart Forbes, a spokesman for the NTIA.
Lobbyists for equipment makers and some Internet companies said the application process shouldnt exclude start-up companies or corporations that dont currently provide broadband service.
“All parties should be eligible to bid,” said Grant Seiffert, president of the Telecommunications Industry Association. “We believe the congressional intent is not to preclude anyone from applying.” Members of his association include Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.
Betty Ann Kane, who spoke on behalf of an organization for state regulators, said those applying for grants should be required to work with states.
Underserved Areas
The “fundamental goal” of the grants should be to maximize social benefits of broadband deployment, said Kane, a District of Columbia official who spoke on behalf of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Congress said funds should go toward areas without adequate broadband service.
Stamp spoke for an industry coalition that includes USTelecom, CTIA-The Wireless Association, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the Satellite Industry Association and the Wireless Communications Association International.
It typically has taken several months to disburse funds from other programs, NTIAs Forbes said in an interview today.
The NTIA program was authorized under the $787 billion stimulus signed into law last month by President Barack Obama. The law also includes $2.5 billion for the Agriculture Departments existing rural broadband grant and loan initiatives.
Carriers and other organizations that obtain grants from one of the two broadband-stimulus programs arent eligible to participate in the other.