Today RUS and NTIA released the conditions of access the rural broadband stimulus funds. I haven't read it in depth yet but a number of things have been pointed out to me. A much awaited paper as you can imagine, and one that many hoped would give a much needed kick in the backside to US broadband.
And for an idea of just how radical we're talking about here, here's a short excerpt:
<< Broadband means providing two-way data transmission with advertised speeds of at least 768 kilobits per second (kbps) downstream and at least 200 kbps upstream to end users, or providing sufficient capacity in a middle mile project to support the provision of broadband service to end users. >>
When France announced 2Mbps universal service for 2012 we were all laughing, now weeping is all that's left... I'll comment some more when I've studied the thing more seriously, but I fear it's going to be a depressing read...
