stimulus

Google has partnered with the New America Foundation to create a community feedback forum for ideas on how to improve broadband in the U.S. Users can submit their ideas, which are voted on by others using Google Moderator's yay or nay system.

The forum will be open for the next two weeks, after which Google is going to take some of the top-voted ideas to its proposal, which is being submitted to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC will then take some or all of those ideas to congress early next year as part of the economic stimulus plan. … Read more

Net neutrality advocates got a boost of support Wednesday from the Obama administration when it released grant guidelines for spending the government's $7.2 billion broadband stimulus package.

Companies winning grants to help build new broadband infrastructure will have to follow the Federal Communications Commission's Internet Policy statement, which prohibits companies from deliberately blocking or slowing Internet traffic on their networks.

Proponents of that concept, Net neutrality, have been pushing the government to pass laws or set stricter requirements to ensure that consumers get access to content they want and that competitors are not run out of business … Read more

Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps released a report on broadband strategy for rural America on Wednesday.

The report was mandated as part of the 2008 Farm Bill. In that bill Congress asked the Federal Communications Commission to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to submit "a report describing a comprehensive rural broadband strategy."

The emphasis on forming a rural broadband strategy came several months before President Obama took office. Obama also sees broadband as a priority and included funding for broadband development as part of the stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year.

In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress appropriated $7.2 billion for broadband grants, loans, and loan guarantees to be administered by the USDA's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). As part of this bill, the FCC is also required to file a report with Congress in February 2010 describing a national broadband policy.

Copps called this report on rural broadband strategy a starting point for developing a national broadband policy. And even with the $7.2 billion of money from the stimulus package, Copps said that more money will be needed to ensure that every American has access to broadband.

Copps identified several issues in this report that must be overcome to get broadband deployed in rural areas. These issues include technological challenges, lack of data about where broadband is available and who is accessing it, and high network costs. Despite these challenges, Copps said that the U.S. government must pour resources into solving these problems just as it did when building the U.S. Postal Service, the railroads, the nationwide electrical grid, the interstate highway system, and even the Internet backbone.

"From the country's earliest days, building the nation's infrastructure has required federal resources and leadership, and this federal role continues," he said in the report. "At their inceptions, some of these projects were controversial. Many considered them too expensive; others doubted their efficacy. Today, few would question their value, but each of these undertakings depended on a strong and coordinated national vision."… Read more

A group of energy industry associations has warned President Obama that bureaucratic delays could sink large-scale projects and derail Obama's goal of doubling renewable-energy supply in the next three years.

In a letter dated Tuesday, seven industry groups urged Obama to intercede so that already-authorized loans are made available quickly. The letter was signed by the heads of the American Wind Energy Association, the Solar Energy Industries Association, the Biomass Power Association, the United States Clean Heat & Power Association, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Geothermal Energy Association, and the National Hydropower Association. (Click for PDF)

The credit crisis … Read more

Open source is picking up steam in enterprise computing, even as the economy peters out. If West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller has his way, open source will soon make its mark on medicine, too, with the lower cost of open source a key impetus behind the move.

Rockefeller last week introduced Senate Bill 90, the "Health Information Technology Public Utility Act of 2009," which "would create a Public Utility Board under (National Coordinator for Health Information Technology) David Blumenthal to push a model of open-source health software, offer grants to hospitals which adopt the model, ensure interoperability … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest post. See Paul Bell's bio below.

When President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress in February, he spoke to the need for the United States to become more energy-efficient. To that end, the stimulus bill he recently signed into law provides more than $30 billion for energy efficiency projects, innovative technology loan guarantees, the retrofitting of federal facilities, and the development of the initial framework for a "smart" electrical grid.

These measures put the country on a long-term path toward so-called green-led growth. But how they are implemented is as … Read more

The Obama administration announced new plans on Thursday to kick-start smart-grid development, including funding details and the start of a standardization process.

During a visit to Jefferson City, Mo., Vice President Joe Biden detailed plans for the U.S. Department of Energy to distribute more than $3.3 billion in stimulus funds for smart-grid technology development grants. Additionally, the Energy Department will hand out $615 million for regional demonstration projects that exhibit smart-grid storage, monitoring and technology viability.

"We need an upgraded electrical grid to take full advantage of the vast renewable resources in this country--to take the wind … Read more

When it comes to broadband, Australia isn't messing around.

Earlier this week the Australian government announced a new plan to build a new fiber-optic communications network that will cost the government about 43 billion Australian dollars or roughly $31 billion in U.S. money. The new national network, which will be built by a yet-to-be-named state-controlled company, will provide broadband speeds of 100 Mbps to about 90 percent of Australian homes, schools, and businesses by 2018. The other 10 percent will get broadband access via wireless technology.

The new network will be fast enough to allow Australians to watch … Read more

Updated at 10:20 a.m. PDT with additional analysis and comments

WASHINGTON--As other government agencies race to dole out $7.2 billion in stimulus funds for broadband deployment, the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday began the process of developing a holistic plan for improving broadband access nationwide.

The commission adopted a notice of inquiry that will seek out comment on a wide variety of issues affecting broadband deployment from diverse parties across the country. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the FCC has until next February to consider these issues and develop a national broadband plan.

"This … Read more