Broadband wireless wins in NTIA’s final Round 1 stimulus awards

Broadband wireless made a strong showing with the National Telecommunications and Information Agency yesterday, as the NTIA issued its final awards in Round 1 of the broadband stimulus program.

All but one of the nine new awards were for broadband infrastructure — and of the eight infrastructure awards, five were for broadband wireless. WiMax pioneer DigitalBridge Communications won three grants for a total of $4.28 million to bring wireless broadband to numerous Idaho counties.
The other two wireless awards were $19 million to Buggs Island Telephone Cooperative in Virginia and $9.5 million to Pine Telephone Company in Oklahoma.

Other infrastructure awards included $535,000 to The City of Williamstown, Ky. for a fiber-to-the-home network; $25.8 million to Critical Hub Networks for an undersea cable and middle-mile microwave network serving Puerto Rico; and $27.2 million to the Public Utility District of Pend Oreille County, Wash. for a fiber-to-the-premises network.

The only grant that did not involve infrastructure was $28.5 million to One Economy Corporation for a sustainable broadband adoption program targeting residents of 159 affordable and public housing developments and low-income communities in 31 states and the District of Columbia.

The new grants bring the total value of funds awarded by the NTIA in Round 1 to $1.2 billion. The agency began with a total of $4.7 billion, so it still has plenty of funds left for Round 2, which had a filing deadline in late March.