Broadband Stimulus Unplugged
August 31, 2010
By Paula Bernier
The Federal Communications Commission has spent a lot of its time, relative to the broadband stimulus, talking about its high hopes for wireless. But until recently, that hasn’t been reflected in the actual broadband stimulus awards. That’s starting to change.
The FCC recently has announced various broadband stimulus winners from both the cellular and satellite worlds.
For example, Cellular One of East Central Illinois has been awarded $13 million in federal stimulus funds. More than 66,000 people, over seven thousand businesses, and approximately seven hundred community groups are expected to benefit from the stimulus grant awarded to Cellular One. It is estimated that 267 jobs will created are part of the company’s broadband stimulus effort.
“Not only will this grant address the critical need to build out broadband services in Eastern Illinois, but more importantly, it will make a significant contribution to the long-term economic growth of communities in the region,” says Richard Nespola, chairman and CEO of TMNG Global, whose strategy advisory subsidiary, CSMG, assisted Cellular One of East Central Illinois in the creation and submission of its grant application. “Only a handful of cellular companies thus far have received broadband stimulus funding and we are honored to have assisted Cellular One through their successful submission process.”
Other recent broadband stimulus awards went to EchoStar, which has received a $14 million broadband stimulus award to offer satellite broadband service to rural residential and commercial subscribers. Meanwhile, Spacenet got an $8 million award, which will allow it to offer satellite broadband service to rural residential subscribers in Alaska and Hawaii. Hughes Network Systems garnered $59 million to provide satellite broadband service to rural residential and commercial subscribers nationwide. And WildBlue won $20 million to provide satellite broadband service to rural residential and commercial subscribers in the West and Midwest.
So, it is now crystal clear that cellular and satellite will be an important part of the nation’s broadband efforts. Still, some are saying that rules around wireless should be different from those covering wireline efforts because wireless is still in a formative stage.
But, as Carl Ford of Crossfire Media, recently pointed out, it is wrong to think of wireless as nascent.
“We have saturated the market with wireless services, and the wireless world looks much like the PSTN did in the 1990s when people were buying modems for the first time. (Yes, we can make the case that the iPhone is nothing more than an integrated dongle),” he says. “The current network architectures for wireless are being migrated to an Internet model, but to allow companies to claim it is not part of the need for competitive services is wrong. The innovation at the edge needs to be encouraged, and solutions that enable more transport power on the edge should be part of the goal. Calling wireless nascent leaves the status quo on the road to long term to evolution and off the tracks of competition.
I might add that a TMCnet report recently debunked the FCC notion that 14 million to 24 million Americans cannot buy connections running at 4mbps or faster in the downlink. Technically, the report indicated, that is not correct. HughesNet, for example, already offers a 5mbps tier of service, and there is no doubt the other providers will offer such speeds with their next round of satellite launches. That said, satellite service is far more expensive than fixed network service or even mobile service, but, technically, there are very few U.S. homes that physically are unable to buy a 5mbps service, according to the report.
Comments: To comment on this blog or on other issues related to the broadband stimulus or The National Broadband Plan, email Paula Bernier at paulabernier@mac.com.
Paula Bernier is executive editor for the IP Communications Group at TMC where she manages editorial content for the print versions of Internet Telephony Magazine, Next Generation Networks Magazine and Unified Communications Magazine. An 18-year communications industry reporting veteran, Bernier was formerly editor in chief of xchange magazine. She’s also worked as a senior writer for Inter@ctive Week. Bernier got her start in telecom at Telephony magazine, where she spent nearly five years, leaving as the news director. Bernier also has been on the reporting staffs of various mainstream daily and weekly newspapers in Iowa, Minnesota and South Carolina.
The contents of this blog represent solely the opinions of the author and are not the opinions of, or approved by, ADTRAN, Inc. |
