MuniWireless

The NTIA has approved a $7.25 million broadband stimulus grant to bridge the technological divide and increase economic opportunities in vulnerable and low-income communities in Los Angeles, the Central Valley, Orange County, San Diego, and the Inland Empire in California (finally, a grant to a California institution). The grant will fund digital literacy training for more than 675,000 individuals, enabling them to make use of key educational, employment, and health resources online.

The recipient of the grant is the California Emerging Technology…

The Rural Utilities Service has posted a list of projects that have received broadband stimulus loans and grants under BIP (as of 17 Feb 2010). The largest award made to date is $51 million (loan) and $50 million (grant) to the Rural Telephone Service Co. for the expansion of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas of western Kansas. Other big awards went to the Valley Telephone Cooperative in Texas ($40 million loan, $38 million grant); United Utilities, Inc. for middle…

The Q4 2009 numbers are in and they are good for Clearwire: According to its press release, Clearwire added 87,000 net new subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2009, meeting the company’s predicted goal of adding more new users in the last 90 days than during the entire previous three quarters of 2009.

Clearwire also broke out wholesale subscriber numbers for the first time, claiming that partners Sprint Nextel, Comcast and Time Warner Cable combined to add 46,000 additional 4G subscribers…

The second PC World 3G Wireless Performance test shows AT&T leading the other cellular carriers in download speeds. In contrast to AT&T’s poor performance last spring, this time around AT&T seems to have made noticeable improvements in its network across the 13 cities where Novarum conducted its tests:

“AT&T’s network turned in download speeds that were 72 percent better than the numbers from eight months ago; in our latest tests, AT&T’s download speeds were 67 percent faster on average than those…

The NTIA is on a roll! Today, the agency announced that it is awarding $11.2 million to ENMR Telephone Cooperative, Inc. (which does business as ENMR-Plateau) to improve broadband access and speeds in eastern New Mexico and west Texas via a 1,600-mile ring of fiber. Among other benefits, the project plans to expand distance learning opportunities for students at schools and libraries in rural areas and enable connectivity to a telehealth network being constructed across New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and…

Wilmington, North Carolina and the county of New Hanover (NC) are using the frequencies from the vacated TV white spaces for a variety of wireless applications that save money and protect the environment. The partners in this “smart city” wireless network project are TV Band Service LLC, and Spectrum Bridge (a company that wireless networks to access and use all types of spectrum a database driven cognitive network architecture). TV white spaces are the unused TV broadcast channels made available…