By the time the dust settled Friday, at...

By the time the dust settled Friday, at least 500 “expressions of interest” were submitted by rural telecom providers eager to expand broadband service. That was the date when rural ISPs, telcos and others could respond to the FCC’s open-ended call for expressions of interest to get funding money to be used for experiments. The filings were still trickling into FCC docket 10-90 Tuesday, as companies and associations asked for anywhere from a few tens of thousands of dollars, to several tens of millions of dollars. “Comlink LLC. requests $240 M in funding from the Connect America Fund in payments over four years at 25% of the total amount per year,” said a typical filing (http://bit.ly/1giAcrN). The FCC has contemplated a total funding amount of $50 million-$100 million for rural broadband experiments (CD March 7 p2).