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Dozens of Texas companies and a few cities are vying for a slice of stimulus money aimed at providing speedy Internet access to everyone in the country.
The $787 billion federal stimulus bill signed by President Barack Obama in February includes $7.2 billion to expand access to broadband Internet. Most of the money is expected to go toward beefing up access in rural areas, but some local cities hope to receive funding to add more computers to libraries.The Obama administration, as well as many Texas officials, describes broadband Internet access as a utility like water and electricity that can play a pivotal role in communities."Broadband is as important today as interstate highways were in the ’50s," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples said.Federal agencies will announce the recipients of the first round of broadband stimulus funding next month. The Texas Agriculture Department and the Public Utility Commission created a task force to weed through over 170 Texas applications to recommend those that would have the greatest impact. The task force chose 63 applications, totaling nearly $700 million in funding, Staples said. Given that the first round of funding for the entire country will be only $1.2 billion, many of the applicants are likely to be disappointed, he said.Getting connectedSteve Greenwalt is optimistic he’ll make the cut.His Waxahachie company, Ellis County Texas Internet Service Provider, connects about 1,200 customers in Ellis County and the surrounding area, many through wireless towers set up on grain elevators. DSL connections are available in some parts of the county but at slower speeds, Greenwalt said."We’re in a rural area that desperately needs us," he said.Greenwalt’s application for $722,000 in stimulus money made the state’s preferred list. He hopes to use the funding to add 22 towers over the next three years to expand his service to Navarro, Hill and Limestone counties. "I’m going to expand anyway, but with the grant, it would accelerate our growth," Greenwalt said.Proponents of increasing access say it can be a boon to economic development and education. But Staples said broadband access could also address the state’s ever-increasing gridlock."The deployment of broadband will allow us to solve many of our transportation problems by allowing many employees to work from home more," Staples said.A recent report by the analyst firm The Yankee Group estimated that 12 percent of U.S. households are effectively not served by any broadband service provider. Though many likely have access to some satellite Internet service, it has not gained popularity, and satellite providers do not yet have the capacity to handle the millions of homes that remain unconnected, according to the report.McLean, Va.-based SpaceNet believes that satellites are the best way to connect rural households to the Web. State officials apparently agree because they recommended approving the company’s application for $37.9 million in stimulus money.
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