ValleyShadow

The Remaining Stimulus Rounds Have Been Consolidated, But Your Options for Funding Have Not

In this week's column for GoingWiMAX.com, I decided to discuss the USDA's Rural Utilities Services (RUS) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) consolidation of the remaining two rounds of broadband stimulus funding. Back on November 10th, the RUS and NTIA announced that they would be consolidating the final two rounds of the broadband funding into one single round. They claim that they did this to "increase efficiency and better accommodate applicants", but the fact of the matter is that this consolidation has many organizations concerned. 

This concern is based on the prospect that a consolidated final round of funding will mean a) less time to prepare their applications, and b) more competition due to the perception that this is the final opportunity for broadband funding.

But just because the RUS and NTIA have consolidated the final “broadband stimulus” funding rounds into a single round does NOT mean that there is any less of an opportunity for funding – nor does it mean that this is the ONLY remaining option for funding. It is important to remember that – while the broadband stimulus funds are significant and are worthy of being pursued – they are not the only game in town when it comes to funding your broadband networks.

For the full article on the many options available to organizations seeking funding for their broadband networks, read it on GoingWiMAX.com here. 

3G’s Data Dilemma: The Re-Birth of Citywide Wi-Fi?

A couple of weeks ago I received a note from Sam Churchill, the founder and long-time editor of DailyWireless.org, asking me if I would be interested in becoming a contributing writer for DailyWireless. I've been reading DailyWireless.org for the last 8 years -- from just about the time it was founded -- so I was definitely excited to say yes. As I've mentioned before, I am already a regular columnist for WiMAX.com (recent articles here) and I recently started writing for GoingWiMAX.com (first article here), so this will be my third regular column (every other week). 

My first article for DailyWireless posted on Tuesday, and I had the opportunity to write about a topic that I personally find very interesting, but which I also predict is going to be one of the largest wireless trends of 2010 -- and that topic is the 3G data offload problem. 

Basically, what it comes down to is this: With the explosion of smartphones (led by the iPhone, of course) in the last 2 years, today's 3G networks are completely bogged down by the massive increase in data traffic brought on by the smartphone phenomenon. While cellular carriers' revenues have increased by 50-100 percent due to data revenues, the traffic on their networks has increased 500-1000 percent, meaning that they are not making anywhere near as much in additional revenue as they are forced to shell out to increase capacity. And the worst part for the carriers is that, especially in major metro areas where there is a higher concentration of people with smartphones, the performance of their 3G networks is so bad that customers are getting fed up and cancelling service. 

This is what I refer to as the 3G data offload problem. The 3G network was not built to handle a 1000x increase in data traffic, and thus, both voice AND data services suffer. So what are carriers supposed to do? 

That is exactly what I tackle in this first article for DailyWireless.org. I am sure there will be many more posts exploring this topic in depth, but I think this helps provide a good primer. Take a look at the chart below (from the article), and please read the rest of the article HERE. As always, please let me know what you think!