Stimulus Spending Speaks to Administration Commitment on Broadband, Adelstein Says

NASHVILLE -- The release of the National Broadband Plan signifies how “essential telecommunications is to our lives,” Jonathan Adelstein, the Rural Utilities Service administrator said in a CompTel keynote. “Broadband offers probably the greatest potential to advance our social and economic welfare since the rise of electricity. It’s that critical that everybody have it.” He credited the FCC and the White House with strong efforts toward broadband expansion. “It’s great to be part of an administration which has put broadband expansion at the very top of its agenda,” Adelstein said.

Having $2.5 billion in broadband stimulus money to give out presents the agency a huge opportunity, Adelstein said. The RUS has awarded about $895 million in the first round. With one more grant to distribute, “we're pretty much completed with the process,” he said. Adelstein said competitive local exchange carriers made up 10 percent of the first-round winners, and he encouraged other companies, including wireless companies, start-ups and incumbent LECS, to apply in the next round. “We're making competition a part of it,” he said. “We want our stimulus programs to highlight the latest advances so that rural areas receive quality broadband service that’s second to none."

Round two “is a whole new ball game,” Adelstein said. It has been changed from the first round to be “more open, more flexible and more inviting.” Changes for the next round include doing away with the 50-50 loan-grant split for nonremote areas. “Everybody is eligible for a 75 percent grant as the base,” he said.

The application deadline was extended two weeks to March 29 to “make sure people could reapply” and to “give everyone time to craft the best applications they possibly could,” Adelstein said. He said several applications were turned because proposed projects were too close to towns, and the RUS decided to do away with the rural definition.

"We're going to give out twice as much money this round,” Adelstein said. The RUS has allocated about $2.2 billion. The agency can also raise the 75 percent grant cap to 100 percent for “areas that really need it,” he said.