WASHINGTON, January 13, 2010 – The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Tuesday announced that it has awarded grants to fund broadband mapping and planning activities in Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas under NTIA’s State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program.

With the grants, the NTIA has awarded 51 of the 56 applications: one for every state, plus the district of Columbia and five territories. The NTIA has spent approximately $97 million on the applications, the agency said.

WASHINGTON, January 7, 2009 – The head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Monday urged the Federal Communications Commission to take steps designed to encourage greater competition in the market for high-speed internet access.

In a Monday letter to the FCC as part of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, Assistant Secretary of Commerce Lawrence Strickling urged that “the Internet’s innovation ecosystem is built on, and thus depends upon, a communications infrastructure operating at broadband speeds, with robust bi-directional service.”

The current level of competition is not enough to spur innovation or cause increased investment in broadband, Strickling said.

WASHINGTON, December 31, 2009 – The Commerce Department agency responsible for the mapping component of the broadband stimulus program announced, on the last day of the year, that it had funded five more states’ broadband data programs.

With the announcement – of funding for broadband data and mapping in Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, Utah and the U.S. Virgin Islands – the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has awarded 41 grants totaling $78 million.

There remain 15 awards still to be made – rounding out the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories that submitted applications and are eligible for grant funding.

WASHINGTON, December 29, 2009 – Rick Rotondo, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Spectrum Bridge, advises technology policy enthusiasts to keep an eye on wireless broadband legislation from Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

WASHINGTON, December 29, 2009 – Dan Hays, director of the telecommunications practice at the management consulting firm PRTM, told Broadband Census News Monday that his company has some serious concerns about the overall direction of a government program to distribute funds to spur broadband penetration across the nation. Hays added that the division of grants and programs by state to gather information that will be used for a national broadband map “is driving unnecessary fragmentation.”

WASHINGTON, December 28, 2009 – Broadband Census News Reporter Winter Casey touched base with broadband business strategist Craig Settles this week on what to expect might happen on key technology issues in 2010. Settles addresses government broadband stimulus grants, legislation, and mapping in the interview.

WASHINGTON, December 24, 2009 – Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-RI, said Tuesday he is thrilled that the government has allocated approximately $1.5 million to his state to lay the groundwork for enhanced internet services.

WASHINGTON, December 22, 2009 – Connected Nation, which bills itself as a national non-profit organization that seeks to expand access to broadband internet, hit the jackpot Tuesday when the government announced it will be receiving more than nine million in funding for broadband mapping work.

“Congress rightly recognized that increasing broadband access and adoption in communities being left behind in the 21st Century economy depends on better data collection and broadband planning,” said Lawrence Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, and head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, in a statement.

WASHINGTON, December 10, 2009 – Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., are claiming that a number of stimulus funds allocated to technology-related projects have been wasted, mismanaged, or directed toward shortsighted projects.

The Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration is seeking public and agency feedback on proposed information collection for the State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program, according to a Federal Register notice dated December 3. The notice states that written comments must be submitted on or before February 1, 2010.