Broadband Providers Big and Small Seek Dollars

Obama officials received some 2,200 applications from companies and organizations for some of the $7.2 billion in stimulus money set aside by Congress to build out new high-speed Internet lines and services.

Applicants asked for upwards of $28 billion in funding for projects, far more than Obama officials have to distribute. The Commerce Department and Agriculture Department are handing out up to $4 billion of its total stimulus funding for the first round of applications, which were due last week. Two more funding rounds are planned later this year and early next year.

“Applicants requested nearly seven times the amount of funding available, which demonstrates the substantial interest in expanding broadband across the Nation,” said Lawrence E. Strickling, the Commerce Department’s assistant secretary for communications and information.

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