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Stimulus News

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NTIA and RUS Release Joint Request for Information (USDC 11/10/09)
The USDA's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announced they are streamlining the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's broadband grant and loan programs by awarding the remaining funding in just one more round, instead of two rounds, to increase efficiency and better accommodate applicants.  Read more.... (pdf)

NTIA and RUS Streamline Programs to Bring Broadband, Jobs to More Americans: Agencies Plan to Consolidate Final Two Funding Rounds, Seek Comment on Program Enhancements (USDA 11/10/09)  
The USDA's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announced they are streamlining the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's broadband grant and loan programs by awarding the remaining funding in just one more round, instead of two rounds, to increase efficiency and better accommodate applicants.  Read more....

NTIA Awards Grants for Broadband Mapping and Planning in Arkansas, the District of Columbia, and New York (NTIA 10/26/09)
The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announced that it has awarded grants to fund broadband mapping and planning activities in Arkansas, the District of Columbia, and New York under NTIA’s State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program. The program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will increase broadband access and adoption through better data collection and broadband planning. The data will be displayed in NTIA’s national broadband map, a tool that will inform policymakers' efforts and provide consumers with improved information on the broadband Internet services available to them. Read more....

Bandwidth Boost For Libraries Gaining Support (Information Week 10/14/09)
An effort to make the nation's public libraries a major source of robust Internet access is gaining momentum as a disparate group of foundations, companies, and trade and government agencies weigh in with plans to build support for bringing fiber optic technology to the country's 16,500 libraries. The drive has attracted supporters that range from Google and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA) and the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA). Boucher, who is House Communications Subcommittee chairman, has already told FCC chairman Julius Genachowski that a plan to equip public libraries should focus on delivering "extraordinarily high bandwidth" to libraries. Don Means, founder of the Fiber to the Library Project, has said improving Internet broadband access to public libraries "provides the biggest bang for the stimulus buck." The Gates Foundation, in a proceeding before the FCC, has estimated an investment of $700 million to $1.7 billion would pay for the installation fiber for 87% of public libraries currently without fiber. The Gates FCC effort seeks to generate public comments by Oct. 28. "We see libraries as early adopters of technologies," said Means in a statement. "A lot of people had their first experience with first-generation broadband at a library. We think libraries are demand drivers for emerging technologies." Read more....

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