The NTIA announced that applicants that couldn't file documents supporting applications for grants under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program have until 5 p.m. Monday to send the papers by hand-delivery, overnight express or regular mail. The system generally seemed to work well Thursday, the last day for first- round applications. Andy Lipman, a Bingham McCutchen lawyer, said giving applicants extra time to file support documents probably relieved pressure on the IT system. A Maryland consortium of 11 counties completed its application last week but had trouble uploading attachments and was kicked out of the submission system several times, said Ira Levy, director of information systems for Howard County, which is coordinating the effort. The group had run into the same problem with economic stimulus efforts such as the energy program, he said. nnQuirks in the system along with slow servers complicated submissions, Levy said. Limits on uploads seemed to change throughout the process, and the Maryland consortium had to trim pages to comply, he said. After its submission, the system reformatted some of the group's Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, cutting off some columns and moving them to a new page, he said. But Levy expects application reviewers to get in touch with applicants about any problems with reading attachments, as reviewers of energy stimulus applications did, he said. Most companies seemed to be waiting until the deadline had passed to announce their applications.
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