SATELLITE SEEKS STIMULUS SUBSIDIES FOR WIRED-BROADBAND HAVE-NOTS

摘要

The next public notice about stimulus awards should set aside money to help those who don'tnhave wired broadband available, satellite companies told NTIA and the RUS. Hughes,nWildBlue, EchoStar and ViaSat said $500 million should be allotted to what they called anbroadband connectivity credit, providing a subsidy up to $1,000 a user to cover as much as 80npercent of infrastructure costs. Satellite equipment and its installation in homes should bencovered, they said. The high price of equipment and service and relatively slow data speedsnhas long held satellite back as a major broadband technology. But the funding category wouldnbe open to wireless and wireline broadband projects as well as satellite broadband providers.