The Economic Stimulus: It’s All About Doing More

During his January 20 inauguration speech, Barack Obama pledged: “We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.”

Nearly a month later, the newly elected 44th president of the United States signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The purpose of the new legislation, otherwise known as “Economic Stimulus Act,” is straightforward: Jumpstart the economy by creating jobs through temporary federal funding of projects that invest in our nation’s future; and from a telecommunications perspective, fund broadband deployment that delivers on the longtime promise of providing enhanced broadband services to all Americans.

Included in the $787 billion ARRA is the broadband stimulus package, which appropriates $7.2 billion for broadband and Internet. Of the $7.2 billion, $4.7 billion is appropriated to the NTIA for the establishment of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), with the remaining $2.5 billion going to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s RUS broadband loan and grant programs for delivering broadband to rural America. Also as part of the ARRA, $27.5 billion is appropriated to improve our nation’s roads, bridges and highways, along with $50 billion for health care reform including health care IT, and $100 billion for education and training.

For the nation’s incumbent network service providers, in particular, what does all of this new funding mean? And how can they best leverage these dollars to better serve their valued customers and drive up revenue? Service providers, particularly those operators servicing rural America, should focus strongly on two key important aspects of the Act:

1. Priority for awarding such funds shall be given to project applications that will deliver broadband services to those areas that remain out of the reach of broadband, the “unserved” and the “underserved.”
2. That priority for awarding funds made available shall be given to projects that provide service to the highest proportion of rural residents who do not have access to broadband service.

The interpretation of these two clauses is ultimately about doing more. The new Act will free up network operators to do more with their networks ... to deliver more services and applications than ever before ... and to reach more subscribers and end users than they ever thought possible. It is absolutely incumbent upon the service provider to make sure that they are planning to use these funds cost effectively, and in such a manner which enables them to reach as many subs and end users as possible. As a result, their funding application will be given higher priority to receive the necessary award(s) to revitalize their network, while also complying with the primary objective of the Act: providing the fastest and most secure broadband speeds possible to all Americans, so we can do more.

Eric Vallone, vice president of marketing at Actelis Networks, is responsible for setting the direction of the company’s product portfolio, as well introducing its products to the market. Prior to Actelis, he was with AT&T, ADTRAN, and Paradyne Networks. His areas of focus included DSLAMs, mobile backhaul, xDSL, VoIP and VoATM products, and network management solutions.