q has chosen to participate in round 2 of the broadband stimulus bake sale, and they aren’t thinking small. As everyone knows, the ILEC’s home turf covers a large amount of the country’s sparsely populated territory and therefore has more than its fair share of under-served areas. So when Qwest finally chose to seek stimulus funding, they quickly came up with quite a list of communities across their territory.
Their proposed projects amount to some $467M, of which they are seeking $350M from the government. That’s much larger than most of the projects awarded in the first round, but then again they are larger than those bidders and probably wouldn’t bother with the whole process without the numbers being relevant to their own size. They intend to use the money to bring broadband to half a million homes and anchor institutions, with speeds in the 12-40Mbps range.
I’m guessing that if the marketing points are close to reality, this one will get funded easily – half a million is a big number and these are locations that the government probably won’t find anyone else willing to go to – at least not in bulk. And the government wants very much for this to be a cooperative effort – they want Qwest and its brethren in the picture.
Hmmm, will we see other ILECs join in the fun as well?
If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!
Categories: Government Regulations · ILECs, PTTs
Join Our LinkedIn Group
A lot of areas claimed as not covered are really covered by a WISP in one form or another, but the way the protests work (or the discontinuity of the WISP community), they’ll get funded anyway, despite existing service.