On April 17 2014 the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) held a public hearing at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C. to examine the need for high-speed broadband in the nation’s libraries. The event coincided with Library Week and also the release by the N.T.I.A. of 3 case studies of the effects of BTOP funding on libraries. The program comprised 3 panels – 1) The Vision: What happens when we get it right? This panel explored innovative practices and partnerships and new strategies that have the potential to serve individuals and communities well. 2) The Data: Panelists explored what we know about broadband connections and services in America’s libraries. What are the metrics that were needed to assess whether sufficient connectivity is in place? What are the metrics that could be used to assess success? 3) Moving Forward: a session for exploring solutions for sufficient connectivity in libraries. Amongst those testifying was FCC Chair Tom Wheeler who is actively pursuing E-Rate reform. Video is below. Closed captions are available.
View at CSPAN: http://www.c-span.org/video/?318935-1/broadband-libraries
Twitter: #erate
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included $7.2 billion to expand access to high-speed Internet services to close the digital divide, drive economic growth, and build the technology infrastructure and skills that America needs to compete in the 21st century. Roughly $4 billion of that total supports the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, or BTOP. The program, which is administered by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), is investing in roughly 230 projects to increase broadband access and adoption around the country.
On January 16 2013, Governance Studies at Brookings provided an update on the BTOP program three years after Vice President Joe Biden announced the first round of BTOP awards at a factory in Dawsonville, GA. The event featured keynote remarks by NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling, followed by a panel of officials from BTOP projects that provided firsthand accounts from around the country.
Moderator: Darrell M. West
Keynote: Lawrence E. Strickling – Administrator, NTIA
Panel:
Bruce Abraham – Member, Board of Directors, North Georgia Network
Susan Corbett – Chief Executive Officer, Axiom Technologies
Curtis Lowery, M.D. – Director, UAMS Center for Distance Health
Mark Malaspina – President CFY
- View video or listen to audio on The Brookings Institution site
- Download audio
- Uncorrected transcript
- Brookings Institution YouTube Channel (nothing posted as yet)
A DNAinfo story Mobile Computer Labs Deliver High-Speed Internet to Public Housing details NYC Housing Authority’s two mobile computer labs.
From the story:
The air-conditioned vehicles, which NYCHA calls Digital Vans, are outfitted with eight laptops each and wireless Internet, which tenants can also access outside the vans on their own devices. Trained instructors travel with the vans to problem solve or, in some cases, to explain computer basics.
The vans shuttle daily between 19 NYCHA developments across the city, including 10 sites in The Bronx, stopping at each development about once every two weeks. They are partly funded by a federal Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant.
Included is a good quote from NYCHA CIO Atefeh Riazi: ““I’ve never seen a seven-year-old do homework on a cellphone.â€
The Digital Vans’ locations can be ascertained by following @NYCHA.
On May 16 2012 the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a Hearing on Broadband Loans and Grants, aka BTOP.
* Henry Waxman Opening Statement | video
Witnesses:
- Larry Strickling,  (NTIA) Testimony | Video
- Jonathan Adelstein, (RUS) Testimony| Video
- Todd Zinser,  U.S. Department of Commerce Testimony | Video
- David Gray, U.S. Department of Agriculture Testimony | video
- Q&A – video
Todd Zinser appeared to give the best overview of overall spending and his testimony includes this chart:
(CCI = comprehensive community infrastructure, PCC=public computer centers, SBA=sustainable broadband adoption)
As can be seen on the chart, infrastructure projects – many held up by environmental or other permit concerns – are lagging in fund uptake. Some may even miss the deadline (Sep 2013).
The Q&A focused on overspending and fraud on the Dem side, and more existential questions from the GOP side.
Join the Federal Communications Bar Association’s New York Chapter in collaboration with The Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School for a brown bag lunch program featuring New York City’s Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) grant recipients and benefitting organizations. Discussion will include an overview of the scope of grants received, a status report on the programs, on-going objectives for the organizations and more.
What: BTOP Recipients Roundtable
When: Tuesday, April 12th, 2011, Noon – 1:30 pm
Where: New York Law School 185 West Broadway (at Leonard St.), Room W-204, NY NY 10013
Who: RSVP
Speakers:
• Carole J. Wacey, Executive Director, MOUSE;
• Tom Kamber, Executive Director, Older Adults Technology
Services (OATS) ;
• Bruce Lai, Executive Director, School Technology Strategy,
Division of Instructional and Information Technology, New York City Department of Education
• Kate Hohman, New York City Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications (unconfirmed).
The Obama administration has announced the recipients of the second round of Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) funding. $1.8 billion from the American Recovery and Investment Act will fund broadband expansion in 37 states, including New York and New Jersey.
Local projects receiving funds include:
- New Jersey Department of Treasury: nearly $39.7 million for public safety agencies in Northern New Jersey, to deploy an interoperable wireless public safety broadband network.
- Windstream Corporation: $856,000 for Windstream to offer broadband at up to 12 MB/sec in several communities in the NY State’s farthest western corner.
- New York State Department of Labor:Â $536,000, with $230,000 more in matching contributions, to expand occupational skills training and career planning services to low-income areas.
[Source: NYConvergence]
The People’s Production House is seeking a grant of about $3 million from the second round of federal stimulus funding, in conjunction with the North Star Fund and 21 other organizations. The grant money, which would be more than matched by the North Star Fund, would pay for the New York Constellation of Community Computer Centers project. The money would allow the initiative, which already creates public computer centers, to expand and upgrade.
Source: Gotham Gazette
Advancing Community Broadband: A Summer Discussion Series
The purpose of the Advancing Community Broadband: A Summer Discussion Series is to generate a conversation now that a number of concerned parties in New York have gone through the experience of developing broadband stimulus proposals in the first round and in the case of DOITT and DOE have been successfully funded. The idea is that once a month, a group of stakeholders will come together to discuss their thinking around the broadband stimulus, the National Broadband Plan and where they think broadband in America is headed. The meetings will be organized as a half-day forum, hosted on the campus of Columbia University.
Each half-day forum will revolve around a core theme with interrelated subthemes. The group will have in attendance speakers who will share their thoughts and ideas on the theme as a way to start a robust conversation under the broad thematic area. The discussion will be captured on video, audio and by digital still photograph as well as in written form by student rapporteurs.
The next meeting will be held on the campus of Columbia University at the Rm 520, Mudd Building, Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
(more…)
The NTIA/RUS have cancelled today’s planned Broadband Workshop in Blacksburg, VA, due to snow. However they have posted video of the first workshop, Jan 26 2010, in Portland OR:
Dave Burstein’s entire article (original) is repro’d here for readability.
It turns out that AT&T (and almost all wireless companies) have powerful incentive to keep wireline alive because the wired backhaul is crucial to wireless success. Although Randall Stephenson’s first speech as AT&T CEO was “We are a wireless company,†they are backtracking on letting the wired side die. Suddenly this quarter, AT&T and Verizon are massively promoting DSL. Wireless companies, they decided, need the copper to provide more bandwidth to wireless. DSL can thrive in a wireless world.
That’s a crucial transformation that will preserve DSL/fiber’s role long into the future. It’s the path to “Thriving DSL in a Wireless World.†Wireless spectrum has important constraints and a crucial part of the solution is moving as much as possible over the existing wires. 40-50% of mobile calls are from home or office and can be carried via a femto or WiFi gateway. That’s the design of the AT&T, Verizon, and most European networks in the next few years, wildly accepted in the industry.
(more…)
Separately, Strickling said that the NTIA would be unveiling the winners of the first round of the $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus grants in the next couple of weeks.
Members of Congress and some applicants for the funds have criticized the NTIA and the Department of Agriculture for not releasing the funds fast enough.
But Strickling said Tuesday that the department has been working hard to make sure that the projects that do get funded are going to use the money efficiently, and that they are going to be sustainable in the long run — meaning that they’ll still be in operation in five years.
The commercial sector, for its part, is littered with failed telecommunications projects, particularly in the area of wireless broadband.
“It’s important that these people have a business case, and that revenues that they’re generating will exceed operations costs,†Strickling said.