NTIA Gets Worse Grades for Substance than Style in Stimulus Grants

摘要

The Obama administration deserves high marks for its speed and aplomb in doling out nNTIA broadband stimulus grants, but the agency was too narrow and conservative in nprojects it chose, said speakers at the monthly Broadband Breakfast in nWashington. Craig Settles, a consultant and the president of Successful.com, was the nmore vocal in his criticism. He said the NTIA clung to “safe” projects rather than ncreative ones and excluded industry experts and community leaders. The broadband nstimulus was dominated by a “Washington-centric” mentality that made a fetish of nbroadband speeds rather than community-driven goals to use broadband to build nwealth, Settles said. He blamed the influence of ILECs, which he said is limiting ncommunities’ abilities to determine their own path to broadband deployment and nuse. .