Computers & Files

Carl Weinschenk spoke with Russ Sharer, the vice president of marketing for Occam Networks. Occam had a representative at a public meeting on March 10 hosted by the NTIA, the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Agriculture Department, about awarding broadband stimulus money.

Weinschenk: Please sum up where we are on the broadband stimulus.
Sharer: The original bill is long on dollars and short on specifics. There are two parts to the stimulus bill: $350 million is in the hands of the FCC to do a survey on a regional basis on who has and who does not have broadband. There is $4.5 billion that goes to the NTIA. That is really oriented toward grants to move broadband and it relates to education, health care and job creation. That's an area where we will see a lot of creativity.

Also, $2.5 billion goes to the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utility Service for the building out of rural communications systems. There is a clause in that that says 75 percent of an area built out has to be rural. "Rural" has to do with the population of the nearest population center, city or town and the contiguous areas around it. The definition has been in use by the Department of Agriculture for a while.

Weinschenk: What happened this week?
Sharer: What was new this week and what we have learned from both the NTIA and RUS is that we believe there will be three series of appeals for funding. It is not that this has been written into law yet [as the] rules and regulations for applying for money. I think the grant periods will be April to June, then July to September, and than a third one that they are estimating will be from April to June 2010.

Weinschenk: Why three?
Sharer: I think it has to do with ... the realization that they can only process grants so quickly. They also want to see what kind of projects people are working on, and not working on, as they go through the funding cycles. If I had to allocate [a tremendous amount of money] and had not done that before, it is kind of a big thing to gear up for [especially] if I had to do it all at once. I would think that I would spend it more wisely if I [did it in phases].

Weinschenk: What are they doing right now?
Sharer: They are soliciting a lot of information. They have posted 13 or 15 questions at the NTIA site. They would like organizations or groups to complete forms and provide information to NTIA and RUS to aid in their rule making. Some are policy-related and some are technology-related, as I understand it.

Weinschenk: When happened at the meeting?
Sharer: There is a transcript at the NTIA Web site. People from the Department of Agriculture -- including [Secretary] Tom Vilsack -- were there. It was meant to kick off a series of public meetings by the NTIA, RUS and the Department of Agriculture to get people ready for these grants. What they are saying is that we do not have all the rules yet but want to encourage people to put together business plans, start aligning the funds. The grants say that 80 percent is in grants, but that the other 20 percent must come from the people getting the grants. They are trying - I hate to say it this way -- to stimulate the stimulus by getting people going ahead and working on projects.

Weinschenk: There will be other meetings, right?
Sharer: There are meetings next week with similar agendas, on the 23rd and 24th of March in Washington DC. They are doing another session that's more for public input on Tuesday. Commerce and Agriculture will be talking to potential grant people. On the 24th, they will be listening to public comments and suggestions. You can also submit those in writing.

Weinschenk: What is the sense of how organized and open minded they are being?
Sharer: There is a sense that the process is fairly well under control. They had no problem saying this is what we know and don't know. What they are trying to do is make the process happen as quickly as they can and at the same time get as much public input as they can.

Weinschenk: There must be some interesting jockeying going on among those who want to apply for loans guarantees or funding.
Sharer: A man sitting next to our rep said, "There are a lot of dark suits here." You have to realize that this is a stimulus for law firms as well. There are projects to fund and to not fund. Choices will be made. One question that was asked was, "Are you factoring in time for any legal actions that may come from people who feel you need to favor this group or that group?"

Carl Weinschenk covers IP communications and related business issues for IT Business Edge. He is a contributing editor to Communications Technology magazine and has held staff positions at InternetWeek, tele.com, Cable World and Cable Marketing magazines. He runs The IT-Finance Connection. Follow his blog on IT Business Edge.

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