The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced $103 million in grants awarded to 16 states to expand rural broadband yesterday. The money will be shared across broadband authorities and private companies in the group of states. USDA said the awards were meant to close the digital divide between rural and urban areas. Arkansas, California, Illinois, [...]
Oklahoma City is putting its performance data online. Residents will now be able to see how quickly the city is responding to a variety of problems from graffiti removal to pothole repairs. The initiative is part of a larger website from the city Finance Department which provides spending data. The new page will show how [...]
New York City will be extending its contract with Northrop Grumman to support the city’s multi-agency government wireless network for another five years. The New York City Wireless Network (NYCWiN) is the most comprehensive municipal wireless broadband network currently deployed. The network was designed and built by Northrup Grumman and the city cites the company’s [...]
A group of 30 research universities nationwide are partnering together to help spread broadband to the areas around their campuses. The project is called Gig.U and will bring 1Gbps access to localities around each school. The group hopes that by providing this access they’ll be able to increase economic development and attract start-ups to their [...]
Work begins today on a new broadband network in Minnesota designed to connect anchor institutions like public offices, schools and libraries. The Greater Minnesota Broadband Collaborative Project is a $24 million broadband network that will provide greater access throughout the state. Enventis, a subsidiary of HickoryTech, will be managing the build out. The project will [...]
Municipal public safety officials have gone to Washington to lobby for a proposed public safety broadband network. The network which would service only public safety, law enforcement and first responders is supported by the Obama administration but members of Congress are less sure of its merits. The network would cost taxpayers nearly $13 billion and [...]
Last year, West Virginia received $126 million in federal stimulus grant money to expand broadband statewide. However, state officials may be scaling back the project resulting in unspent funds. At the same time, the state’s broadband map still lacks critical data about broadband access.
Calix, a California based provider of broadband access systems and software has been on a roll lately picking up contract wins nationwide as states begin choosing vendors for stimulus funds awarded for broadband expansion. The company, which offers a unified access portfolio allows customers to deploy virtually any service over fiber- and copper-based network architectures. [...]
Broadband access in the United States is an issue fraught with strong opinions on topics from speed to funding to net neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) backed by the support of the Obama Administration is pushing a variety of initiatives to increase broadband access nationwide in order to close the technology infrastructure gap between [...]
Washington broke ground on a project that will expand broadband access statewide. The Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet) began construction on a massive project that will bring nearly one thousand miles of broadband service to nearly every unserved community in the state. Washington was awarded $140 million in federal stimulus grants for the project.
