Quantcast
Channel: FTTH: Take It To The Bank » public-private partnership
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

Stimulus Applications: Fiber Shines

0
0

Applicants overran the first round of applications for broadband stimulus funds – 2187 projects submitted by 1400 unique applicants in 985 cities and towns. Fiber and wireless projects predominate.

Although some of the applications were bizarrely uninformed  (how about $938 million for a nationwide chain of public computer centers – the largest single grant application – or $235 for a single public computer station in Maryland, or $800 for a local point of presence in California), there are requests for $21.2 billion in grants and $6.5 billion in loans – about seven times the funds supposedly available in this round.

I say “supposedly” because NTIA and RUS left open the possibility of adding an extra $100 million or so to the total available in this round, and because some of the $2.4 billion in RUS loan and grant funds in this round could theoretically be stretched to guarantee loans by third parties – if conditions in the capital markets make it feasible and private lenders step forward. That would take a functioning private market for debt insurance, however, or the backing of several large lenders.

A quick review of the application summaries on line (at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/applications/results.htm) suggests that the federal government would, in fact, have no trouble finding worthy applicants for all $7.2 billion authorized for broadband projects in the stimulus program. Take away the obviously silly and plans that are obviously not shovel-ready, and you’d have at least $15 billion ready to go. I’ve come up with that figure by talking to FCC, NTIA and RUS sources, spot-checking 300 of the summary applications in detail, and by reviewing more than 40 that were sent to me by applicants over the past few months for informal advice.

Fiber and Wireless

Out of 1130 “last mile” project applications (we call them “first mile” at BBP), 224 specifically mention fiber in the project summary. Of the 368 “middle mile” applications, 292 specifically mention fiber. Reading the summaries and guessing from the budgets and from full applications I’ve seen, it is clear that many not mentioning a specific technology are indeed FTTP but it is also clear that many builds are exclusively wireless or a mixture of wireless and fiber.

The big losers are DOCSIS (specifically mentioned in only two applications), satellite (41) and cable (mentioned in 68). DSL is mentioned in 40 summaries, but DSL can clearly be added to fiber backbones proposed for funding by almost all mid-mile and most first-mile applicants.

The detailed project breakdown looks like this:

Projects:

  • 114     Last mile (26 specifically mentioning fiber in project summary)
  • 633     Last Mile non-remote area (132 fiber)
  • 383     Last Mile remote area (66 fiber)
  • 368     Middle Mile (292 fiber)
  • 361     Public computer center
  • 328     Sustainable broadband adoption

We’ll be refining those numbers in the days and weeks ahead. But when it comes to funding request totals, there are at least 402 project applications that seem at first glance uniquely or mainly for fiber (mainly first and/or mid-mile) with 392 requesting $5.8 billion in grants and 109 requesting $1.5 billion in loans. There are 310 unique applicant organizations for the 402 projects. (Many applicants, of course, requested both grants and loans; requests for rural projects generally had to include at least 75 percent loan funding.)

Those projects alone would use all $7.2 million of the money available for broadband in the entire stimulus package!

At the same time, there seem to be 468 proposed projects mainly for wireless, with 436 requesting $4.7 billion in grants and 171 requesting $1.7 billion in loans. There are 354 unique entities requesting funds for the 468 projects.

One impressive note: Many ultra-rural builders are looking to create a microwave or WiMAX backup for a fiber middle-mile link, to provide the redundancy that businesses crave and thus to stimulate economic development. These are good examples of the synergy between wireless and fiber.

The “sustainable broadband adoption” category includes many demurely budgeted programs. Almost 100 applications mention library programs.

Reaction at the federal agencies involved has been impressive. There is already serious talk about collapsing the planned second and third rounds of funding into one.

Reaction in the broadband industry has been muted. There has been a call for slowing down, to assure that the funds are spent “optimally.” But that’s a smokescreen. While it is true that optimal is good, the level of these applications is spectacular. Getting the best of these applications funded quickly helps the economy and helps the broadband vendors as well. A few good projects will be missed, of course, but the price seems worth it. Once we have a national broadband plan framework – a year from now – we can revisit overlooked opportunities. In short, some of these projects might not be the very best but there are more than enough to be worthwhile doing. No cyberbridges to nowhere need be funded.

In the days ahead we’ll be looking more closely at the overall database. We have already converted it to a tabular format, and posted it on the Broadband Properties site at http://www.bbpmag.com/stimulus-database.php. We’ll be adding more searchable fields in the next week or so and will publish a full analysis in our October issue. You can take it to the bank.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images