The federal government aims to have distributed all broadband stimulus money by October 2010. Three rounds of "notice of available funds"are slated to take place: one this summer, one in the fall and one in the spring of 2010. The intent is to quickly determine which projects are ready to go and therefore get funded first, while giving agencies and other entities time to map out initiatives that require more deliberation and organizing. It is, of course, possible the distribution timelines will change – officials have been careful to avoid providing specific dates.
Agency/Subagency | Comms. Purposes | Approx. Total Money Available to Comms. Projects | Money Distributed So Far |
Dept. of Agriculture/Rural Utilities Service | Loans for broadband buildouts, distance learning and telemedicine | $2.5 billion | $0 |
Dept. of Commerce/National Telecommunications & Information Administration | Grants for DTV converter box program, Broadband Technology Opportunities Program | $4.5 billion | $62 million (converter box); $93 million to BTOP |
Dept. of Energy/various | IT R&D, smart grid | $4.5 billion | $0 |
Dept. of Health and Human Services/Health Information Technology | Electronic medical records, healthcare and IT | $19 billion for e-records; $59 billion total for states; unspecified amounts will go toward comms projects like wireless unified communications, managed services and national network interoperability | $0 |
Dept. of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration | Traffic systems upgrades, video camera surveillance, fiber loops, etc. | $27.5 billion total; unspecified amounts will go toward comms projects as states do infrastructure upgrades
| N/A |
Federal Communications Commission | Converter box program, BTOP | $24.4 million | $16 million (converter box program) |
