Overview

General Information

Peering

Data Center Evaluation

Backbone Architecture

Metro Ethernet Project

ARRA Grant Information

First 18 Awards

Middle Mile Analysis

Top 15 Lists

California Recommendations

Case Studies

Pacific Medical Data Solutions

FIRST 18 AWARDS ANALYSIS

How Do They Stack Up?

It has been a long and winding road for first round applicants for the Federal ARRA Broadband stimulus monies. It's been four months since we hit the submit button in eager anticipation of receiving awards to build out broadband networks. After much anticipation the first 18 ARRA broadband stimulus awards were announced by Vice President Joseph Biden on December 17th, 2009. This announcement represented about 5% of the $4.2 billion available in Round 1 once the $800 million designated for reserves and mapping is removed.

The ARRA Consulting team at Digital West Networks Inc. has done some analysis of this initial announcement. Following are tables and analysis of the first 18 awards. As more awards are announced these tables will be updated. Or feel free to contact us at ARRA@digitalwest.net.

ARRA Funding Scoreboard

• Half the awards (9 of 18) and slightly over half the money (56%) went to private companies.
• Three (3) Public/Private applicants received 39% of the awards, four (4) Public entities received 4% and one non-profit received two awards for 1% of the total amount.
• Eleven (11) projects received endorsements from their state, while 4 did not. Three (3) other states either did not make recommendations or did not make their recommendations public.
• Five (5) awardees applied for BIP only, 4 for BIP/BTOP, and 9 for BTOP only.
• Four of Five (4 of 5) middle mile projects were for between $20 million and $40 million, the fifth project was for $2.4 million.
• All seven (7) awards for Last Mile went to projects targeting remote areas.
• Last Mile awards ranged from $106,503 to provide services to 600 households in Hawaii to $25.3 million to provide services to 9,000 households in Alaska.

Awards by Project Type

Awards by State

• The largest award went to ION Hold Co. with a $39.8 million grant. Conversely, Big Island Broadband/Aloha Broadband Inc received the smallest award at $106,503 loan only. Big Island also had the highest equity investment contributing 45% of the project costs.
• 15 of the projects were grant only awards. The three that asked for grant and loans were Slic Network Solutions (80/20), Consolidated Electrical Cooperative (43/57), and Big Island with (0/100) loan only. Applicants in BIP funds tend to follow the trend of a balance of grant to loans while the BTOP is leaning towards grants only.
• The Inland Northwest Community Access Network (TINCAN) in the state of Washington garnered two awards, one each for Sustainable Broadband Adoption and Public Computing Centers. TINCAN provides education and support for social, economic and community development for the Inland Northwest region through the use of information technology and interactive media. They create online content of value to the local community; develop collaborative training and education utilizing online resources; and collaborate with local partners to provide access to digital technologies for those who might otherwise not be able to benefit from online information. The non-profit is affiliated with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and 180Networks.
• Chatham Telephone Company of Michigan, a subsidiary of TDS Telecom, received $8.6 million to expand DSL technology into rural, remote, unserved areas. This is one of 13 applications submitted by TDS Telecom subsidiaries.
• New York and Washington received two awards each. New York received 25% of the first award announcements.

In Summary

Few if any assumptions can be derived from this small sample of awards. However, it is clear that remote, underserved and unserved projects are being funded initially along with larger middle mile projects.