E-Piphanies

Making Sense Of Broadband Stimulus

Vice President Joe Biden is in Pennsylvania today to kick off the Administration's $7.2 billion broadband stimulus program, announcing the release of the federal agency regulations, also known as the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA), that set eligibility rules.

So far, most people have focused on who should be entitled to receive the grants -- large telcos or small ISPs, private companies versus municipal governments -- and incumbent carriers have worked hard to prohibit local governments from operating broadband networks.

The NOFA will settle all those questions, or most of them, and now we get to the part of the process where federal agencies sort through thousands of proposals and start making actual funding decisions. But the real benefits of the broadband stimulus won't come from the actual technology spending. As Peter Pratt writes (and his blog has plenty of useful details for anyone who wants to understand the details of the grant-making process):

Less than $10 billion in broadband stimulus is not going to trigger another tech or telecom boom. That figure is a fraction of the annual capital expenditure (capex) of American cable, wireline and wireless carriers, even in the current recession. The $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus funds is not chump change, but it will not set-off much more than a boomlet in spending.

If that's the case, then why do it at all? Is it to enrich a couple of small entrepreneurs here and there?

To read more, please see Making Sense Of Broadband Stimulus on my Digital Life blog at InformationWeek.

Separated at Birth?

Thanks to my wife Molly for this. On the right is Bernie Madoff; on the left is Enron's Ken Lay.

Thanks to Six Apart

I wanted my first post to be a thank you note to the wonderful people at Six Apart whose instinctive reaction to the great diaspora of journalistic talent was to create a kind of shelter where we refugees can find hope and solace.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this space, other than blog about the issues that excite and interest and intrigue me; maybe it will become a thing of its own, or perhaps I'll use it to show people what I can do.

Either way, it's a great way to keep myself in the game.

You've got a great project in TypePad and a wonderful example of link journalism with your Best in Blogs. Best of luck and thank you from the bottom of my heart.