Federal BroadBand Funding for Indian Reservations, Clearwire, Philadelphia and Appalachia

The U.S. Commerce and Agriculture Departments, which will divvy up $4 billion dollars for broadband Internet development, have a problem. They’ve received $28 billion in stimulus requests (2,200 applications). The $4 billion in available funds will eventually expand to over $7 billion. But the costs in rural and metro areas of the United States for usable broadband Internet service far exceeds available stimulus funds. Who gets funded?

The broadband Internet issue comes on the heels of the CTIA Wireless meeting in San Diego last week where everyone from the FCC to Qualcomm and the carriers issued dire warnings about lack of wireless spectrum for mobile communications.

Many areas of the United States have wired or wireless Internet connectivity, but there’s a desperate need for faster connections for mobile and personal computer access in rural and metro markets.

Here are four requests for Federal broadband assistance. If you were the Federal decision-maker and could only fund ONE of these projects, which one would you fund and why?

1. Coeur d’Alene Indian tribe in the Idaho panhandle. A small area of the reservation has an unreliable, overtaxed  wireless service offering a top speed of 1.5Mbps. Subscribers now pay $100 per month for the service. When the local telephone company pulled out, Verizon offered DSL service to a small portion of the reservation. Indian leaders are proposing a fiber-optic system covering half of the reservation. Cost is $12.2 million. Enhanced Internet service would be used for distance learning and medical services.
   
2. Clearwire, the WiMax service, delivering wireless services over large geographic areas, wants $19.4M to service 800,000 poorer areas of Detroit with high unemployment. Internet service companies seeking profits have no interest in serving these marginal markets. Clearwire promises to extend WiMax across metro Detroit, charging $25-$45 per month, depending on download speeds of 3Mbps to 6Mbps, plus offer free and discounted rates to poor residents.
   
3. In Appalachia, a non-profit wireless Internet company called MAIN, wants government help expanding a dial-up service in North Carolina that now requires users to make a long distance call when accessing the Internet. MAIN needs $2.5M to extend its wireless network to Asheville, NC so another non-profit ISP needing $38M can connect MAIN to the Internet with fiber. Started in 1996, MAIN has 1,200 dial-up, 400 wireless and another hundred customers who use WiFi. Federal funding would connect another 11,000 customers in public housing complexes and other low income areas of Asheville. The expanded 3Mbps service would offer broadband to young entrepreneurs and struggling artists and cost around $30 per month. Funding would also expand service to another 1,700 homes in rural Robbinsville in Graham County. Presently, residents must use the public library to access the Web. Funding cutbacks have reduced operational hours for the library. With the money, MAIN could also expand service to Mount Mitchell State Park, the highest mountain East of the Mississippi, permitting rangers and scientists to receive real-time weather, acid rain and trail conditions.
   
4. Philadelphia wants around $22M to provide wired and wireless broadband to city offices and mobile city workers with wireless devices in the field. The city also wants $2.4M to install computer labs in public housing facilities and another $15M for libraries that would offer Internet training and laptops to get low-income residents online.
   

Again, you’re in charge of awarding Federal funds to help ONE of the communities seeking expanded Internet access across the U.S. Who would you fund and why?

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