New England & The Broadband Recovery Act
On Friday I participated in a panel on general topic of funding at a conference entitled New England & The Broadband Recovery Act. Under the broadband portion of the stimulus package approximately $7.2 billion has been allocated to various broadband and related activities. As with the stimulus package as a whole, the main goal is to create jobs, but there are other aims as well. Others have questioned the wisdom of brining 100 megabit per second connectivity to remote places, but that’s the goal – like it or not. There are other aspects of this act that are terrifying and there are some hidden opportunities
In the terrifying category: The government is pushing huge sums out the door in a huge hurry. They just aren’t ready to do it. The bulk of the broadband money is being allocated by the NTIA (an agency, if you can call it that, under the general control of the Department of Commerce). The allocations made by the NTIA may, almost certainly will, amount to long term decisions around what technologies to adopt. These decisions will be made in a frantic rush and could well have long lasting effects. The odds of getting it wrong are very high.
In the opportunity category: It looks like there will be many small grants and that companies addressing issues in the healthcare, education and other social services are likely to be eligible. The grants will not be limited to states, municipalities and the like. So, it appears that it will be possible for private companies to access grants (or, in some cases, loans) for appropriate projects. For the right company this could be a significant source of non-dilutive equity. There are procedures in place for making applications, and now is the right moment. Having said that, the NTIA seems to be making it up as it goes along. This is understandable since neither they, nor anyone else, has done this before.
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