The biggest winner among the 94 broadband stimulus awards totaling $1.8 billion announced today was the University of Arkansas, which was awarded $102 million for a project to connect community anchor institutions throughout the state. Other winners included Iowa Telecommunications, which won $17 million for two projects, and Windstream, which won more than $64 million for four projects, bringing its total awards in this funding round to 12.
Also among the winners were four satellite projects, the first of their kind to be awarded, and several public safety network projects. The public safety network projects are intended to serve as a “vital set of demonstration projects,” Jared Bernstein, chief economist to the vice president, told reporters on a conference call to announce the awards.
Organizations winning funding for satellite projects include WildBlue Communications, Spacenet and Echostar. Public safety awards primarily went to government entities, with the exception of Motorola, which won $50 million for a project in the San Francisco Bay area.
Not among today’s winners were filings from the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative or Digital Bridge—two organizations that made complementary filings for broadband wireless projects in several states. Also still pending is a large application from Qwest.
According to remarks made by Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein on the conference call, it appears that Qwest will either receive the full $348 million for which it applied or nothing. “We only award an entire service area applied for,” Adelstein told reporters. If a company makes a single application for multiple states (as Qwest did), Adelstein said it will either win funding for the entire project or none at all.
A complete list of awards can be found here.
