WASHINGTON, February 8, 2010 – While the federal government is closed today due to inclement weather, Sen. Mark Warner and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra announced the newest broadband stimulus grants.
The two Virginia projects will receive $21.5 million in funding to expand middle mile networks to rural and underserved areas of the state.
WASHINGTON, February 8, 2010 – The NTIA/RUS Round Two Public Workshop scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, 2010, in Blacksburg, Virginia has been cancelled due to inclement weather.
This leaves two remaining Round Two Workshops, out of the 10 originally scheduled: Thursday, February 11 in Fayetteville, N.C.; and Friday, February 12 in Atlanta, Ga.
WASHINGTON, February 8, 2010 – The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has agreed to reexamine a voice-over-Internet protocol patent at the request of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
WASHINGTON, February 8, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commission has received thousands of comments both lauding and criticizing its proposed plan to address the controversial issue of network neutrality.
Recent hearings before the House on the proposed merger between Comcast and NBCU drew both accolades and skepticism for regulators on Feb 4, 2010. The skepticism seemed to come from what was perceived as inconsistencies in previous statements by CEO’s Roberts and Zucker from what was being purported in the public meeting.
WASHINGTON, February 5, 2010 – The Commerce Department on Friday announced two additional broadband stimulus funding grants: $5.9 million to the South Carolina Technical College System, and $1.2 million to a consortium of Rhode Island’s 71 public libraries.
Both grants were made under the portion of funds — $50 million in the first round of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program — earmarked by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for public computing centers.
“Thanks to this funding, public computer centers and computer labs throughout the state of South Carolina will be able to serve more than twice the current number of users,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement.
PHILADELPHIA, Penn., February 3, 2010 – Investment in broadband infrastructure, most believe, is essential to our nation’s future economic health.
In an information economy, the race is to the swift: those who can quickly access more, better information will innovate, communicate, and transact at a far greater rate than those who cannot. That’s how the argument goes. As our nation prepares to invest billions in broadband infrastructure, it appears that “We the People” have accepted that argument.
One nagging question remains: is the argument valid?
WASHINGTON, February 2, 2010 – Three minority business groups came together on Tuesday to criticize proposed network neutrality regulations, and discussed their joint filing on the subject at the Federal Communications Commission.
Harry Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Justin Nelson, president of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and Javier Palomarez, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce participated in the conference call.
TAMPA, Fla., February 1, 2010 – Broadband is as important today as television and radio were in the last century, a senior policy advisor for the Federal Communications Commission said at an association annual meeting this week.
WASHINGTON, February 2, 2010 – Mississippi’s Office of the Governor and broadband mapping firm BroadMap have announced that they plan to work together to collect and verify the availability, speed and location of high-speed Internet access across the state.