State Preferred Broadband Stimulus Projects Sweep Day 1

After reviewing the letters from the states to the NTIA, BroadbandBreakfast.com has learned that out of the first 7 broadband stimulus projects awarded today all were specifically recommended to the NTIA by the states, with the exception of the Rivada Sea Lion project in Alaska  and Bretton Woods Telephone Company project in New Hampshire.  Alaska did not recommend specific projects to the NTIA, and we are waiting to hear back from New Hampshire regarding their preferred project list.

This is most interesting to our readers because approximately one-third of all broadband stimulus projects submitted to the NTIA made it onto preferred projects lists from the states. This begs the question, how seriously is the NTIA taking the recommendations from the states?

So far, BroadbandBreakfast.com  has confirmed that letters from Kentucky, Minnesota, Northern Mariana Islands, South Dakota, and  Indiana to the NTIA are the only letters considered confidential or “not public at this time”. We look forward to the eventual disclosure of these documents. If you have any information regarding these, please send me an e-mail at MacRae@broadbandcensus.com.

Note 1:50 pm :  I will be checking the next 11 projects to be released shortly.

Note 2:01 pm :  I’m building a spreadsheet of all of the projects announced today, you can view it live on Google Docs.

Note 2:40 pm: With help from several people we built the following tentative list:

• Confirmed on preferred by states    6
• Not on preferred by states  5
• Unknown   6

Note 4:04 pm:

• Confirmed Preferred     11
• Not Preferred (N/A)    6
• Unknown    1

All BTOP and BTOP/BIP programs were recommended by the states in letters to the NTIA, except Minnesota. I have called the recipient and asked if they were on Minnesota’s preferred list. They said they would get back to me. Because states weren’t asked to comment on BIP, none of the BIP recipients today are listed as preferred.