WASHINGTON, January 5, 2010 – BroadbandBreakfast.com has been actively covering the workshops of the Federal Communications Commission as the agency prepares its national broadband plan. We have covered all of the workshops since late August. In preparation for assembling the complete collection of articles, BroadbandBreakfast.com reporters are returning to the beginning of the workshops, on August 6, 2009. To see the complete collection of articles, click on http://broadbandbreakfast.com/category/fcc-workshops.

WASHINGTON, December 16, 2009 – A number of groups representing minority interests are advocating that special rules be created by the government for Native Americans applying for broadband stimulus grants.

The awards are being decided by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities, which were charged by Congress in January to distribute $7.2 billion of federal funding to expand broadband penetration across the country.

WASHINGTON, December 10, 2009 – The Federal Communications Commission should improve its outreach to consumers about its complaint process for poor wireless phone service, according to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office.

WASHINGTON, November 19, 2009 – The Native American population is one of the most disconnected groups in the country, according to a study released Thursday on broadband penetration.

The Native Public Media and the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative suggest that the Federal Communications Commission create a Tribal Broadband Plan within the national broadband plan that it is currently drafting.

WASHINGTON, November 19, 2009 – The Government Accountability Office on Monday released a report analyzing the possible challenges faced by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Rural Utility Service when they implement the broadband stimulus.

The largest problem that the GAO saw was that after 2010, both agencies will no longer have any funding to provide oversight to projects. Additionally, they currently lack enough staff to properly provide oversight. In the 2010 budget request to Congress, NTIA asked for an additional 40 full-time employees; RUS asked for 47

WASHINGTON, November 3, 2009 – The Internet could provide vital links between people and institutions to keep government running and businesses operating during an outbreak of H1N1 influenza, said a report released in October by the Government Accountability Office.

WASHINGTON, October 27, 2009 – Members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation raised concerns Tuesday about getting broadband stimulus funds out to remote areas and how these areas should be defined. The discussion took place during an oversight hearing on the process of awarding out the $7.2 billion provided to the federal government by Congress to expand broadband deployment and adoption.

WASHINGTON, October 11, 2009 – Current measures of broadband comparisons between the United States and the rest of the world – and within the country – have limitations, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office released on Friday. These limitations including the “lack of comprehensive measures from the government to compare price, actual delivered speeds, and service reliability data from providers,” and information that was gathered through international broadband comparisons that are not comparable across countries.

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2009 – Wireless carriers deals with equipment vendors and their commitment to rural coverage came under the microscope Wednesday as executives and industry analysts testified before the Senate Commerce Committee during a hearing on “the wireless consumer experience.”

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2009 – The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners on Thursday ratcheted up their call for greater state involvement in disbursement and use of the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus funds with a letter to top Commerce and Agriculture Department officials.