USDA awards $103M+ To Expand Broadband Internet In Rural America

Click on the image above to see a PDF of all the companies that received the award.

USDA, Broadband, Rural America http://snapvoip.blogspot.com

ISPs and Telecommunications companies strewn about in 16 states will receive more than $103 million in funding from Federal Government to expand High speed broadband Internet service to rural America that have not seen the high-speed service in their area or are underserved, USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today.

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 22, 2011 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that 18 recipients will receive more than $103 million in funding for 23 projects to provide broadband services to unserved and underserved rural communities. Residents and businesses that will benefit from this funding include those in an Oklahoma community damaged by a tornado earlier this year.

"Without broadband, rural communities, agricultural producers and business owners face a substantial challenge," Vilsack said. "These loans and grants will bring the benefits of broadband, including new educational, business and public health and safety opportunities, to residents living in some of the most remote parts of our Nation."

One of the successful applications is from Wichita Online, Inc., which will use a USDA Rural Development Community Connect program grant to provide broadband to the rural community of Tushka Town, Okla. The community was hit by a tornado on April 14, 2011, that killed two people and destroyed or damaged a number of buildings in the community. Rural Development's $480,000 grant to Wichita Online, Inc. will provide residents with broadband service and new opportunities for economic development.

The Community Connect program has been instrumental in providing broadband access to residents in remote areas and low-income communities. This year, the Karuk Tribe in Orleans, Calif., will receive a Community Connect grant to provide Internet services to 570 tribal members in a mountainous region of Northern California. Of the Community Connect grants being announced today, seven grants will provide broadband to communities that are plagued by persistent poverty.

In addition to the Community Connect grants, Secretary Vilsack announced $90 million in loan funding for five broadband infrastructure projects. For example, the Dubois Telephone Exchange, for example, has been selected for an $11.4 million loan to provide broadband to nearly all of the businesses and residents in Wyoming's Upper Wind River country and Little Snake River Valley. The loan is expected to create 100 jobs and save up to 150 others. Recreation and tourism are the leading industries in Dubois and the Upper Wind River Country, and broadband will enable those industries to thrive. The Vernon Telephone Cooperative, in Westby, Wis., has been selected for a $24 million loan to build a Fiber-To-The-Premises (FTTP) system in areas outside the town. Vernon also plans to make other system improvements in several area exchanges.

The infrastructure loans announced today are in addition to $192 million in loans Secretary Vilsack announced on July 27, 2011, through USDA Rural Development's Telecommunications Infrastructure Program.

The Community Connect program provides grants to rural, economically challenged communities. Funds can be used to construct, acquire or lease facilities to deploy broadband to community facilities such as schools and public safety buildings, as well as residents and businesses in the community. Each project requires a matching contribution and must serve an area where broadband is not available. The grantee must agree to provide local community centers in the selected towns with at least 10 computers which are accessible free for two years. USDA funding for all loans and grants is contingent upon the recipient meeting the terms of the loan or grant agreement.

For a complete list of the awardees, click here.

In June, President Obama signed an Executive Order establishing the first White House Rural Council, chaired by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The White House Rural Council will work throughout government to create policies to promote economic prosperity and a high quality of life in rural communities.

Since taking office, President Obama's Administration has taken significant steps to improve the lives of rural Americans and has provided broad support for rural communities. The Obama Administration has set goals of modernizing infrastructure by providing broadband access to 10 million Americans, expanding educational opportunities for students in rural areas, and providing affordable health care. In the long term, these unparalleled rural investments will help ensure that America's rural communities are repopulating, self-sustaining and thriving economically.

USDA, through its Rural Development mission area, administers and manages housing, business and community infrastructure and facility programs through a national network of state and local offices. Rural Development has an existing portfolio of more than $155 billion in loans and loan guarantees. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

ZTE Will Supply Equipment and Services to ChinaTel for Its Wireless Broadband Network in Fujian Province

ZTE and ChinaTel. http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

ChinaTel advances its deployment in the Haixi Special Economic Zone within the People’s Republic of China

SHENZHEN, China & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, and China Tel Group, Inc. (“ChinaTel”) (OTCQB:CHTL), a US-based operator of wireless broadband and telecommunications networks, today jointly announced they have signed a contract for ZTE to supply ChinaTel with infrastructure equipment for the nine city wireless broadband network ChinaTel is deploying in the Fujian province. The value of equipment for the first two cities is $9.57 million. The parties have agreed on component pricing for future equipment in the other seven cities, which will be ordered upon completion of engineering work to determine final equipment needs. The parties will also enter into a separate contract for ZTE to provide professional services including network planning and optimization and equipment installation for all nine cities.

Phase 1 of the Fujian wireless broadband access (WBA) project will focus on two major cities: Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian province, and Xiamen, one of the four special economic zones in PRC. Phase 2 of the Fujian WBA project will expand to seven additional cities (Quanzhou, Zhang Zhou, Longyan, Putian, Sanming, Nanping and Ningde) within the next 8 months. ChinaTel will complete engineering for the Phase 2 cities by Q3, 2011. The equipment contract calls for delivery of 172 base stations and associated core equipment for installation in Xiamen and Fuzhou. ChinaTel projects the equipment for Phase 1 will be delivered by July 2011, and construction of Phase 1 will be complete and a commercial launch of the network in Fuzhou and Xiamen will occur by Q4, 2011.
All nine cities covered by the current phases of the project are within Fujian Province, which enjoys status under PRC law as Haixi Special Economic Zone, to promote foreign investment and international trade. “We expect to benefit in a variety of ways from the relaxed economic regulations in effect in Fujian Province, in terms of the services we will offer, as well as the technology we will employ,” stated ChinaTel’s President Colin Tay.
Today’s announcement marks another milestone in the relationship between ZTE and ChinaTel. “The contracts for the Fujian WBA project reinforce the strength of our partnership with ZTE,” noted ChinaTel’s CEO, George Alvarez. “From cutting edge technology, to aggressive pricing strategies, to favorable deferred payment terms, ZTE has demonstrated its ability to satisfy all of ChinaTel’s needs.” ZTE and ChinaTel entered into a global strategic memorandum of understanding in August 2010. In November 2010, the parties finalized equipment and services contract needs for deployment of a WBA network in Peru by ChinaTel’s subsidiary, Perusat. ZTE is also assisting ChinaTel with design and engineering to determine the scope of infrastructure equipment needed to upgrade the fiber optic cable connecting most major cities within PRC as part of ChinaTel’s deployment map.
For more information about ChinaTel, visit www.chinatelgroup.com. To learn more about ZTE, visit http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/. In addition, executives from ChinaTel and ZTE are now available for media and analysts interviews.

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Comcast Resolves Net Neutrality, Is It Time To Xfinity?

#Comcast Resolves #NetNeutrality, Is It Time To Xfinity? http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
After FCC and the likes of Florida Attorney General began asking questions about traffic throttling and forging torrent packets, looks like Comcast is cleaning up the act and making ways for net neutrality.
Good timing as I am planing to leave AT&T broadband services after something like 16 years (If you count ISDN as broadband :). The only reason I stayed with AT&T because of the IP block I received, and most of my DNS runs from those IP address'. But now I am changing and I can save a lot of moola by going with Comcast Xfinity triple play!.
But one should not forget about net neutrality nor ignore as the issue is very much alive and brush up your knowledge on it. Two posts that collect a lot of information such as Comcast's lies about traffic throttling, packet manipulating, FCC and Florida Attorney General, found at DSLReports and Ars Technica.
Also do not forget to read Comcast's own blog post about the matter.
Hope Comcast has Business service for self employed.

Brazil's Broadband Progress On A Upward Curve!

Brazil Grows Broadband Coverage snapvoip.blogspot.com
Now with Brazil on the map with Olympics, many people are looking that direction. While I think that the Olympics in Brazil will shine a light on the region, Brazil has be lighting up dark corners of the land with broadband access.
Cisco's he 12th edition of the Cisco Broadband Barometer report notes a 16% growth in connections. Now it has reached 13.6 million marks and continue to grow.

The report also suggest that the tax reduction on computers has made the progress accelerate at a higher rate and also the following key factors!

• The broadband penetration in Brazil increased slightly from the previous Barometer edition, going from 5.16 percent to 5.8 percent. The state of São Paulo still holds the highest number of connections, with 11 percent share of the connections in Brazil.
• In the 12-month period between June 2008 and June 2009, the registered broadband growth was 36.5 percent.
• Mobile broadband continues to show strong growth. The quantity of broadband subscribers using mobile connections accounted for 2.6 million subscribers in June 2009, a 34.2 percent increase from the previous six months. IDC estimates that the number of mobile connections used on desktops, notebooks or netbooks reached 2.6 million in this period.
• Brazil is just 1.4 million connections from the goal of 15 million set by the Cisco Broadband Barometer for 2010.
• The average navigation speed continues to increase, albeit slowly. A growth of more than 3 percent was registered for speeds of more than 2 Mbps, the highest growth among available speeds in Brazil. Connections of 2 Mbps currently account for 16 percent of the Brazilian connections.
• The state of São Paulo increased its share in the total number of connections, when compared to Brazil as a whole, following the trend also seen in the second half of 2008. The greater 3G coverage contributed to this growth.
• São Paulo also leads in the "residential access" segment with 33 percent of penetration. The national average for Brazil at 17.85 percent continues to increase, though more improvements are necessary to achieve the substantial benefits afforded by broadband connectivity.
• Once again, residential use was significantly higher than corporate use in the mobile broadband market. Residential access grew five percent compared to December 2008, reaching 76.6 percent of the connections.  This is compared to 23.4 percent of corporate connections, highlighting the appeal of this kind of connection for personal use.
• Broadband prices remained stable during the quarter. Some companies have increased the bandwidth offered maintaining similar price offerings.
• According to the latest National Survey by Household Sample, from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 17.95 million Brazilian households have computers, 31.2 percent of total households versus 5.6 percent penetration for all habitants.

Go Brazil! The Linux Land
Cisco

Nortel Heats up the Summer With Hyperconnectivity. Going Online At 100MPH.

TORONTO - From enhancing leisurely pastimes to connecting with work while on vacation, communications technology is changing the way we spend those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] presents the top five ways that summer is becoming hyperconnected:

1. The Office is Anywhere: The allure of a summer house on quiet lake is calling out to you but there's big stuff going on at the office that you just have to keep tabs on. Rather than miss out on the chance to enjoy mid-day swims and evening marshmallow roasts you take your office to the lake with you. Unified communications and telework technologies allow you to do this by giving access to your phone calls, voicemails, e-mails and online collaboration tools like video-conferencing with the same simplicity and efficiency as if you were at the office. Even if you are only heading out of the office for lunch on a patio or a golf tournament, Mobile Unified Communications tools like Fixed Mobile Convergence Mobile Extension can transform your mobile phone into an office extension using the same number and features as your desk phone, like internal extension dialing, conferencing and call transferring. Workers can even access VoIP and video conferencing while on the go with the speedy connections offered by today's 3G wireless technologies, like CDMA EV-DO.
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3. Rural Connectivity: Working from a summer home is one thing if you have high-speed broadband. However, if you are restricted to dial up Internet access, as is the case in 30 percent of rural Canada, it can be a frustrating and downright futile task. With the emergence of 4G wireless broadband technologies like WiMAX (which exists today) and LTE (which is expected to be in deployment by 2010), service providers can cost-effectively deliver high-speed access in areas where it would have been too costly and difficult to build wired networks. This means that in the future more hyperconnected workers and vacationers will be able to access high-bandwidth applications like VoIP and streaming video from rural areas.
4. Road tripping for the Hyperconnected: Getting to your vacation spot of choice leads many folks into that quintessential summer family adventure: the road trip. Luckily today there are iPods, portable video game devices, and cars with built in DVD players to that you can load up with content at home and bring along to entertain hyperconnected passengers. In the future summer road trips will be enhanced by the ability to access online content and applications right from the car such as streaming music, online gaming, and mobile TV. This is another advantage offered by 4G which has the speed and capacity to support broadband connectivity even while traveling at up to 100 km/h. Check out the drive tests that Nortel performed over both LTE** and WiMAX**.
5. Hyperconnected Island Hopping: A recent study conducted by Nortel and IDC showed that hyperconnected workers would take their laptop out before their wallet or even mobile phone if they had to leave their house for 24 hours. In addition, roughly 30% of survey respondents have texted or emailed while on vacation. Based on this, you can bet that many laptops, smartphones, and other connected devices, get packed for summer travel. Luckily hotels commonly offer Internet to guests but some resort and tourist destinations are starting to offer more pervasive wireless access that would please hyperconnected vacationers. For example, an island-wide wireless mesh deployment on the Greek island of Patmos** will make this vacation hot spot a wireless hotspot. The Caribbean Islands can also be a haven for the hyperconnected with service providers in several sunny destinations expanding and upgrading their networks to offer the latest in wireless services such as web browsing, streaming video and multimedia messaging.
6. Hyperconnected Play Time: The sun is in your eyes and you've hit a long drive right into the rough. Rather than take a one stroke penalty for the lost ball, the ball emits a radio signal** which leads you right to it. Maybe you'll also be able to better gauge your next drive with the whole course mapped out and displayed on a screen in your golf cart** through a combination of GPS and WiFi. The golf equipment is just some of a whole host of technology on the market today that makes use of connectivity to enhance leisure experiences. Technology is also making it easier to connect with friends while on the go. The combination of devices like the iPhone with GPS and social networking is making it possible to see what friends are on the same golf course, at the same baseball game or just in the same general area as you are when enjoying the summer sun.
   

Tags: 3G wireless, CDMA EV-DO, WiMAX, 4G wireless broadband, LTE, GPS, WiFi, iPhone