As the August 14 deadline approaches for applications for the first of three phases of federal broadband stimulus funding, many telecom companies apparently are going for their share of money. But experts say that small businesses, organizations and communities should also aim for a share of that pie.
In fact, some broadband advocates are saying that the best way to make use of the grant money would be to make it available to end-users who actually the face the problems of non-availability or inadequate availability of broadband.
That's what Craig Settles, an municipal broadband strategy consultant says. "I am very much in favor of putting money in the hands of local communities because I feel they [the actual users] would have the best ideas of what their needs are and to decide how to roll broadband out."
Craig is not the only one. Chris Derrington, the founder and CEO of Rural America Onshore Sourcing, the Wisconsin-based IT company that is using lower-cost rural-based professionals to provide outsourcing services to US-based companies. This way, they don't have to send projects offshore or use expensive urban vendors. He also feels that if the grant is grabbed up mostly by the larger, privately-owned telecom companies, most rural areas would be short-changed.
"I think the best way to spend that $7.2 billion would be to hand it over to smaller telecom companies or even rural co-operatives that could be formed specifically for rolling out the broadband," says Chris. Chris should know because his business depends solely on the availability of broadband in the rural areas. And he says that he has a database of 300 people who live in 12 different cities and to whom he could offer work if only they had high-speed broadband access.
Meanwhile, the tight window for submitting grant proposals that has left many scrambling to file out the paperwork is already making it very difficult for such smaller entities to meet the deadline. "The application process is not easy; it requires a lot of paperwork, mapping, etc and I think only those applicants who have been preparing for this since February would be able to file," says Craig.
This means that there will not be many, because even though the details of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 were known in February, the official notice of funding came only on July 1.
"Given that the 130 pages of rules that had to be understood and adhered to for the application, which according to Government's own estimate requires 120 hours, the six-week window is too short for most applicants," says Craig.
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