Network
So the reviewers at the Commerce and Agriculture Departments who will award the broadband money must make hard choices. The 2,200 applications each envision something different – more fiber-optic lines, for example, or computer labs or municipal wireless networks. But they all promise that their proposals will create jobs and bring new economic opportunities.
What follows are snapshots of four projects representing a cross section of the broadband stimulus hopefuls. Its too soon to know which plans will win federal grants or loans, either in this round of funding or in the next, as the total broadband stimulus expands to $7.2 billion. Those that do get picked may not get the full amount they are seeking.
But perhaps one – or more – of these projects has a chance.
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For the Coeur dAlene Indian tribe in the Idaho panhandle, the stimulus money could mean a lifeline to the outside world.
The tribe is asking for $12.2 million for a ring of fiber-optic lines that could connect up to 3,500 homes on one side of its rural reservation, which is about half the size of Rhode Island.
Right now, the tribes landline broadband options are limited. The local cable company has pulled out of the market. And the phone company, Verizon Communications Inc., offers digital subscriber line (DSL) service to just a small slice of the reservation.
Although the tribe launched its own wireless network in 2005 with the help of Agriculture Department funding, that network reaches less than half the reservation and slows to a crawl whenever too many people get online at once.
Valerie Fast Horse, the tribes information technology director, says stimulus money would let the Coeur dAlene Indians build a network that is “more stable and more reliable” and could deliver faster connections at lower prices.
The tribes wireless network currently offers top speeds of 1.5 megabits per second, comparable to standard DSL service available elsewhere. But it charges users about $100 a month, about four times the standard price. The proposed fiber network would deliver a 20-megabit connection – faster than what most cable subscribers get – for $100 a month. Or tribe members would be able to get a 1.5-megabit connection for $25 a month.
Fast Horse envisions all sorts of uses for the fiber lines, including distance learning. Tribe members already use video conferencing to participate in classes at North Idaho College, about 35 miles away, when the roads are too icy to drive. But that requires them to travel to the tribes education center, which has a landline connection to the Internet. A fiber-to-the-home network would let tribal members take classes without leaving their kitchens, she says.
It would also enable Coeur dAlene members to consult with medical specialists around the country. And it would help the tribe preserve its language and culture, by allowing more members to access the tribes video-sharing Web site, Rezcast. Among other things, the site features clips of powwows and online tutorials with tribal elders speaking their native language.
Clearwire Corp., a company pioneering the use of a next-generation wireless technology known as WiMax, is upfront about the fact that some markets dont make sense for telecom providers that need to show a profit.
So Clearwire is asking for $19.4 million to build a high-speed wireless network in a handful of poor Detroit neighborhoods that it otherwise might not serve anytime soon.
Although those neighborhoods have more than 800,000 people, high unemployment and poverty levels make for a tough business case. But federal dollars would change the equation, says John Bunce, president of the Clearwire unit applying for stimulus funding.
And with that seed money as a starting point, the company pledges to spend its own capital to expand the wireless network across metropolitan Detroit, including more lucrative suburban markets.
The company offers a range of wireless plans, including a $45-a-month package that delivers speeds averaging 3 megabits to 6 megabits per second. On the low end, the company offers a basic 1-megabit connection for $25 a month.