White House Sets Rules for Broadband Stimulus Funds

The Obama administration published the criteria it will use to hand out billions of dollars in stimulus funds aimed at developing the infrastructure to deliver broadband Internet access to areas that are underserved or without access. The Commerce and Agriculture departments will consider projects that provide wired or wireless access starting at low-end DSL speeds, but will give priority to ones promising higher speeds. An area will be considered "underserved" by broadband, and thus eligible for grants, if half or fewer of the households can get wired broadband today, among other criteria.