IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

The draft legislation would split the $6 billion into two pools of $2.85 billion, with one administered by the Rural Utility Service of the Agriculture Department, and the other by the National Telecommunications and Information Agency of the Commerce Department.

Why is providing broadband to community anchor institutions so important? Community anchor institutions provide vital, essential services to some of the most vulnerable and at-risk populations, including disabled, unemployed, low-income and rural Americans. Public libraries make wired and wireless broadband connections available to the public at no charge so that people can submit job applications, apply for e-government benefits, and complete school homework assignments. Primary and secondary schools as well as higher education institutions use broadband connections for distance learning, multimedia teaching applications, and data-intensive research. Hospitals and rural health clinics need high-capacity broadband to exchange diagnostic information and medical records, and to provide remote monitoring of out-patients.

IRON connects state government, research institutions, education and health care facilities across Idaho. More importantly, it enables Idaho researchers to collaborate on regional, national and international research projects by providing the foundation to link Idaho to Internet2 and the National Lambda Rail. These are the high-speed national computer network infrastructures that run over fiber-optic lines connecting the United States from coast to coast and internationally including Europe, Asia, Central and South America.

The law creates a $40 million Massachusetts broadband incentive fund, allowing the state to issue 30-year bonds to help bring broadband to unserved communities like Goshen. The funds will be adminstered by a quasi-public agency, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, which has been studying broadband in Massachusetts.

The Task Force, chaired by Senator Roy Herron and Rep. Mark Maddox, includes representatives from the telecommunications industry as well as representatives from a number of state agencies. The Task Force was established to study the challenges related to providing high-speed Internet (commonly referred to as broadband) to all Tennesseans.

With access to broadband, we easily can sell a car, rent an apartment, look for a job, read the news or manage a business. The advantage of the broadband network is that it can connect you to the rest of the world on your schedule, at your convenience and almost anywhere - that is, unless you live in rural America.

Today, too few rural Americans take advantage of the opportunities broadband provides. Only half of rural residents subscribe to broadband - compared to 65 percent nationwide - because too many communities in rural America don't have adequate access to broadband infrastructure.

David McClure, the CEO and president of the United States Internet Industry Association (USIIA), has penned a news report which claims that the digital divide in the United States is not caused by a lack of broadband availability but rather by slow broadband adoption.

Kan-ed, which is administered by the Kansas Board of Regents, will go live with its new “Kan-ed 2.0” service in January. A pilot program is currently ongoing.

Kan-ed says the new network, which is geared toward Kansas hospitals, schools and libraries, will provide its members with enhanced Internet connectivity through a state contract with AT&T.

Kansas has received a $2 million federal grant to help plan for expansion of broadband Internet services in rural areas, state officials announced Monday.

The award will go toward mapping the state's existing broadband infrastructure so future federal funds can be more efficiently used to expand rural access. Lt. Gov. Troy Findley said having that access can mean the world.

Governor Fletcher has launched a project to make several state buildings and state-owned spaces more user-friendly for visitors. For phase one, wireless high-speed Internet access will be available to residents and visitors in a 3 sq. mile area that includes the Capital Plaza Tower, the Transportation Building, the Old Capitol Annex and surrounding grounds, the Frankfort Convention Center, the Kentucky History Museum, and the Capitol building and grounds.

Connected Nation’s survey has revealed that internet has improved the user’s quality of life. The reason cited behind this is the availability of healthcare applications on the internet. Health improvement in case of Kentuckians is a major point to be noted since the state has often been noted to have a relatively unhealthy population. The broadband connectivity helped the people at Kentucky look for healthcare information when they turned to Internet for help.

The Project to Get Older Adults onLine (GOAL) hosted a press conference today at the National Press Club to announce the launch of the new organization, which will provide a platform to promote the adoption of broadband services by the older adult community. The event featured a keynote by Blair Levin, Executive Director of the Broadband Omnibus Initiative at the FCC and remarks by the founder of Project GOAL, Debra Berlyn, as well as representatives that serve on GOAL's advisory committee and who belong to leading groups including: the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, American Telemedicine Association, Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) and Consumer Action.

The two agencies in charge of awarding billions of dollars of stimulus grants for broadband projects announced Thursday, Jan. 7, the launch of BroadbandMatch. On BroadbandMatch, users can post a profile and search for similar partners.

As Fiber to the Home has offered Lafayette a place among the most forward-looking cities in the country, it has also raised questions about the propriety of government intervention into a market that was, to varying degrees depending on your point of view, adequately covered by the private sector.

“In today’s fast changing economy, broadband is a key element in providing jobs and new investment for Maine’s economy,” he said. “The Public Advocate’s report highlights the measures already in place to ensure that Maine broadband consumers have full and fair access to the Internet.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says the art of communication is about to take a great leap forward in parts of Maine and 37 other rural states as the result of $1.2 billion in federal stimulus funds being awarded across the country.

Say you are the president of the United States. Your country invented the Internet, yet it has fallen to 15th in the world rankings for high-speed or broadband Internet connectivity. How do you explain such a development? Well, if you are President Bush, you declare victory, claim success in supplying affordable broadband Internet access to Americans, and ignore the fact that many of your citizens don't have access to broadband - and those who do pay much higher fees for much slower speeds than almost every other industrialized nation in the world. But if you're a progressive member of the Maryland General Assembly, you may have a different answer.

According to a joint Sept. 17 announcement by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D) and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), the money, which comes from the U.S. Commerce Department's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will be used to lay more than 1,200 miles of fiber-optic cable across the state.

The partnership is expected to build on the existing MassHighway project, extending six 1.25-inch fiber-optic conduits from Connecticut to Vermont and enabling “collaboration across state borders in a variety of areas, including public safety, education, e-health and access to Internet2,” according to a statement by the state.