The government announced in August that an initial $4 billion in stimulus loans and grants will be used to connect rural homes to the internet, stimulate interest in getting internet service among groups that don’t use it much, and expand internet access in public locations such as schools and libraries.
More than 2,200 applicants asked for a total of $28 billion in broadband funds during this initial application process–roughly seven times the amount available. Most of the applications proposed building out internet lines to bring broadband access to rural American towns and cities.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service will pick the winning applicants and announce them in November.
A review of colleges and universities that applied for federal broadband grant money showed many campuses vying to provide more computers with broadband web access to local residents, and other schools hoping to establish wide-ranging cloud-computing networks.
The Research Foundation of the State University of New York (SUNY) requested the largest higher-education related grant, asking for $30 million to implement an educational and workforce training program run through a cloud-computing network. Cloud computing allows users access data, applications, and computer programs over a network via large server centers.
The $30 million would be used to purchases hardware and software for an expansive cloud-computing network, curriculum to educate students and workers, and delivery of “community-based educational training programs” to schools and libraries. The application said the program would focus on underrepresented populations.
Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., is one of many schools hoping to use stimulus broadband funds to establish public computer centers in areas where residents have little or no access to high-speed internet service.
The university is requesting $950,590 to build computing centers in 10 local communities, an important step in creating more than 2,000 “wired workers”–entrepreneurs who conduct their business online–by 2019.
The computer centers, which would be spread throughout the Adirondack North Country area, also could become meeting places for business owners and employees using high-speed internet to bolster outreach.
Links:
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
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