Nov 10 2009: The United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announced they are streamlining the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s broadband grant and loan programs by awarding the remaining funding in just one more round, instead of two rounds, The first round of RUS’s Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) garnered $28bn worth of applications, and about $4bn is expected to be awarded in loans/grants. The agencies have issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment on how the application process may be improved.
stimulus
Video of NYC BTOP meeting
With the deadline for applications for the first round of grants from the $7.2bn set aside for broadband adoption projects in President Obama’s stimulus plan rapidly approaching (Aug14), members of many of NYC communities met to discuss how best to achieve results. Representatives of the City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT) poured cold water on many aspirations stating that most, if not all, the cash would go to rural projects. Despite this many declared it their intention to apply.
Audio & Video below. A listserv has been set up for further conversation. Twitter: #nycbtop
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New York City Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) Meeting
Council Member Gale A. Brewer invites all members of the New York City technology community to discuss the recently released Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) funding that has been made available through the federal stimulus package which passed in February 2009. The purpose of this event is to help galvanize interested applicants around common goals. Please distribute this invitation widely and invite all pertinent stakeholders to attend.
When: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 from 6-8 PM
Where: DCTV’s Third Floor Conference Room
87 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10013 (@ White St) (map)
Contact Kunal Malhotra [kmalhotra@council.nyc.gov] or Sam Wong [samwong.nycc@gmail.com] at (212) 788-6975 if you have any questions and suggestions.
NTIA call for reviewers of Broadband Stimulus Fund Applications
July 10, 2009 Call for Reviewers
Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
Help America Advance its National Objective of Broadband Access for All
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce is soliciting experts to evaluate grant proposals for the $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), an important part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Video of Albany Broadband Stimulus event .
On Monday March 30 2009 Governor David A. Paterson’s Recovery Cabinet held a Broadband Stimulus Information Session
Downloads of the webcast can be found here – The windows media version appears to have much better audio than the others.
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