WASHINGTON, January 20, 2010 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Wednesday continued its rolling award of broadband stimulus grants, doling out $63 million for four broadband grants in Massachusetts, Michigan and North Carolina.

With the announcements, the NTIA and the Rural Utilities Service have awarded $253 million in broadband stimulus grants, or about 3.5 percent of the total broadband stimulus funds. The money has been spent on 23 projects so far, or an average of $11 million per grant.

The largest winners in Tuesday’s announcements were the Merit Network in Michigan, which won $33 million; and MCNC in North Carolina, which won $28.2 million. Both were for infrastructure grants to build fiber-optic networks within their states, connecting households and anchor institutions to broadband facilities.

WASHINGTON, December 17, 2009 – A number of Democratic lawmakers jumped on the broadband bandwagon Thursday to support the use of federal money to encourage adoption of the technology, while one Republican was quick to criticize the Obama Administration for excessive government spending.

WASHINGTON, December 17, 2009 – Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that $2 billion will be made available on a rolling basis over the next 75 days to increase broadband penetration across the country. The money is part of the $7.2 billion Congress allocated in January for national broadband investments.

WASHINGTON, November 30, 2009 – A number of groups took the opportunity Monday to weigh in on the government’s efforts to distribute the $7.2 billion allotted by Congress in January to expand broadband deployment and adoption.

“Many of our nation’s most experienced broadband providers were forced to sit on the sidelines during the first round of funding,” said U.S. Telecom Association President Walter McCormick Jr., in a Monday statement.

WASHINGTON, November 9, 2009 – On Friday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced seven new state recipients of the State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program. These grants fund state efforts to map broadband availability and speeds. Each state was asked to pick a designated entity – either a state body or a non-profit organization – that would develop a plan for how broadband mapping would be conducted.

WASHINGTON, October 14, 2009 – The states of Washington and Massachusetts on Wednesday released their lists of the projects that should be prioritized in the broadband stimulus funding decision pending by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the Rural Utilities Service.

The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for General Consulting Services (No. 2010-MBI-01). The goal is to pre-qualify firms to provide consulting services to support the goals, activities, and work products of the MBI.

WASHINGTON, August 31, 2009 – Although the NTIA and RUS are expected to release the names of the applicants for broadband stimulus funding later this week, the names of many of the applicants are emerging through press releases and through reporting by a wide variety of organizations.

July 30, 2009 – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced Tuesday a partnership between the Massachusetts Broadband Institute and the Executive Office of Transportation to bring broadband to unserved and underserved communities in western parts of the state.

July 25, 2009 – The non-profit group Open Cape Corporation this week announced that it had selected RCN Metro Optical Networks to build a fiber-optic network supporting Cape Cod, and that it will apply for an infrastructure grant under the broadband stimulus funds.