Second round RUS applications include ambitious 4G wireless projects

Scan the summaries of the nearly 800 applications for broadband stimulus funding received by the Rural Utilities Service in the second funding round and you’ll find applications from numerous companies seeking to deploy fiber and fourth-generation wireless technology.

Among the requests for a total of $11.2 billion in funding, you’ll also find additional information about previously announced filings from Qwest, TDS Telecom and Windstream. But you won’t find any applications from AT&T, Verizon or any of the larger cable or cellular operators.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was a series of applications from the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative. The organization, which claims 1500 rural utility members, is seeking approximately $60 million in grants and about $25 million in loans for 30 WiMax projects in numerous states, including California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and the Carolinas. Most recently the NRTC’s involvement in broadband has been focused primarily on negotiating video content deals on behalf of members. The NRTC did not respond to Connected Planet’s request for additional information about its stimulus filing prior to our deadline today.

Several other entities also made large funding requests involving fourth-generation wireless systems. Among these is WiMax pioneer DigitalBridge Communications, which is proposing 30 projects in Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Virginia requesting a total of $85 million in grants and $25 million in loans.

Another company with big WiMax ambitions is KeyOn Communications, which filed 16 applications requesting a total of nearly $250 million in grants and about half that amount in loans to build WiMax networks in about 20 Southern, Western and Midwestern states. According to the project summaries, the company plans to use its nationwide 3.65 GHz license to support the service launches.

Meanwhile, AWS band pioneer ClearTalk is seeking more than $100 million in grants and a similar amount in loans to build ICN networks supporting EV-DO Rev A and EV-DO Rev B in Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

On the wireline side, Qwest submitted just a single application requesting a total of $348 million for construction throughout its 14-state territory. According to the summary filed with the RUS, the company proposes to use a combination of Ethernet, fiber and radio backhaul to reach more than 500,000 living units.

Windstream and TDS Telecom, on the other hand, separated their funding requests into multiple smaller applications. Windstream filed a total of 30 requests in 19 states, all requesting funding for ADSL 2+ technology — an approach with which the company already has experience. “Windstream will extend broadband service using the same architecture, equipment vendors, technologies, processes and procedures that it uses to provide broadband service to over 1 million current customers,” the company wrote in the project summaries. The company previously placed the total value of its funding requests at $238 million.

TDS Telecom also separated its funding request into numerous smaller projects — and because the company filed under a variety of names, it’s difficult to ensure a comprehensive count or to confirm total dollars requested. Previously however, the company said it would make a total of 46 applications. As with Windstream, many of these appear to be for DSL — a technology that TDS also has emphasized in broadband deployments made to date. Joining its mid-tier brethren in seeking funding for DSL is Iowa Telecommunications Services, which has applied for grants totaling $25.6 million — a portion of which would be for middle-mile connectivity, rather than for connectivity directly to end users.