Archive for the ‘Law’ Category

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Pennsylvania Recommends Most of the State’s Own Applications

Friday, December 11th, 2009

I’m not saying that it’s wrong for a state to recommend its own applications, but it is unusual. Of the 13 “highly recommended” projects in the letter (available here in .pdf format from the Baller Herbst Law Group), 9 were submitted by state agencies, by univiersities, and by public libraries.

An additional 12 applications, including one from DigitalBridge, are on a list of “supported” projects.

The Executive Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Office of Administration) submitted four applications worth over $100 million. If accepted, those applications alone could use up most of the funds available for the state. I was surprised to see that two are highly recommended and one is on the supported list.

Muni-Link from CONXX is one from an ISP that I know that did not make the list.

Zito Media, a company I do not know, had one project on the highly recommended list and two on the supported list.

Overall, I think that the state’s task force should be commended for making some tough choices.

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Oregon Provides Details on Process

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

The letter from the state of Oregon (available here in .pdf form from the Baller Herbst Law Group) is excellent because it provides the biographies of the state reviewers and lists both pros and cons concerning all recommended projects.

I understand that some larger states did not have time to provide the level of detail that Oregon did, but I nevertheless feel that Oregon’s letter could serve as a model to the nation on how to get it right.

I also understand that it can be politically difficult to voice any criticism concerning local applications, and I therefore believe that Oregon deserves all the more credit for describing both the upside and the downside of so many applications. (more…)

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Ohio Recommends Large Applications

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

One of my fears regarding the stimulus is that small applicants will be left out of the process. This appears to have happened in Ohio, which is one of the largest states and also one of the most demographically and geographically diverse.

Ohio’s governor faced Alaska’s dilemma in miniature: a large number of worthy projects over a large land area with not enough cash to fund them all. (more…)

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Nevada Supports Satellite and Connected Nation

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

The Nevada Broadband Task Force recommended (.pdf from Baller Herbst Law Group) a large number of projects but should be commended for ranking them all.

At the top of the list, the task force placed two public computer projects (about $4 million to $6 million each) which seem to me to be very worthwhile. Detailed information is available for one of them.

I was surprised to see the projects of Hughes and EchoStar recommended so highly. Unless they can reach parts of the state that nobody else can — this is possible — I see no reason for the deployment of satellite when better technologies are available.

(more…)

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Connected Nation Wins Kansas and Alaska

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Connected Nation, the telco-allied non-profit that wrote the mapping part of the broadband bill, won bids in Alaska and Kansas, it announced.

Art Brodsky has been warning about this outfit for years now, and we’ll get to see whether or not Connected Nation actually produces worthwhile data. It’s particularly sad that Alaska gave away its mapping oppotunity because the broadband stimulus faces special challenges there. An accurate map would reveal a wide variety of unusual technological alternatives in place there, but I’m guessing that Connected Nation will just show that most of Alaska already has broadband.

Brodsky points out that $350 million may be too much. I’m guessing that it could be 100 times the cost or even 10,000 times the cost, but the mapping project I’m thinking of won’t issue its press release until Dec. 6. I will update you then.

Most states (Delaware, Colorado, Louisiana, and so on) that have received mapping money from the NTIA are sending the cash to their own departments of technology. If in fact they get 100 times what they need for the project, the rest of the cash can be put to good use by upgrading the states’ own technology departments.

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David Isenberg’s FCC Fiber Panel

Monday, November 30th, 2009

David Isenberg has convened those concerned with infrastructure at meetings called Freedom To Connect for many years. This year, he’s Senior Advisor to the FCC’s National Broadband Taskforce and instead of Freedom to Connect, he convened a group of eminent speakers for a panel called Workshop: Future Fiber Architectures and Local Deployment Choices.

While much FCC policy has been inward looking, refusing to treat the world as a laboratory in which alternate polcies are tested, some failing and some succeeding. Both failures and successes provide useful lessons.

Two representatives of successes were present, Herman Wagter of citynet.nl in Amsterdam and Johan Henæs Norwegian equipment maker INS Communications.

(more…)

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Montana Aims to Serve Native Americans

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

The state of Montana asked applications to answer some questions of its own in addition to the federal grant application process, and only 14 responded.

Of the fourteen, Montana recommends first (in the letter obtained from the Baller Herbst Law Group website) Bresnan Communications, which has been working with the state since 2005. The Purchase, N.Y.-based organization filed a redacted application for $70 million. It is not clear how many people will be served by this project, but the state says that it serves all seven of Montana’s Indian Reservations and that all seven tribal councils support it.

For the other 13 projects in the state, governor Brian Schweitzer (D) refused to make any decisions. I think this was a bad idea, unless Schweitzer feels that all available cash will be consumed by the Bresnan Communications project.

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The State of Mississippi Endorses DigitalBridge

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) endorsed just a few projects (letter available from the Baller Herbst Law GrouP), including the state’s own sustainable adoption project.

Surprisingly, the state endorsed some DigitalBridge Communications projects. The Ashburn, Va.-based firm filed 64 applications across several midwestern and sourthern states.

I am particularly impressed that Barbour chose not to endorse the largest project in his state, a $250 million project filed by the Mississippi Valley State University. However, it is a historically black college or university (HBCU) and it serves one of the poorest areas of this nation. The project appears to have asked for too much money, but perhaps in the next round, a smaller but similar project will go forward.

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Michigan Recommends 21 Projects

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

While Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm (D) recommended 21 projects, one stood out for me: Merit Network’s middle mile project.

Merit Network is the innovative group behind opencalea and other open source projects that have been helpful to ISPs and small businesses. Merit’s $42 million project, $18 million grant, $18 million loan, and the rest contributed (partly in kind), consists of almost one thousand mile of 72-strand fiber. Merit is working with several local partners in different areas of the state. Merit’s application came with 70 letters of support and Merit notes that it has a history of bringing diverse organizations together. I strongly support Merit’s application, one of the projects the governor recommended.

(more…)

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Massachusetts Courageously Chooses Only Three

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Masachusetts governor Deval Patrick (D), in a letter I find only on the Baller Herbst website, recommended three projects: an infrastructure project in Western Massachusetts, an educational project in and around Boston, and OpenCape, which I wrote up earlier in depth.

Given the large number of potential applications, I applaud the state for choosing to recommend only three. I think it takes a lot of courage for a bureaucrat or a politician to recommend a limited amount of spending on their state.

However, the three projects could still use a lot of cash: $146 million in grants and $184 million in loans. On the other hand, the high proportion of loans in this mix should count in their favor.

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