Christopher Vein, chief information officer of the city of San Francisco, has some inventive ways to bring high-speed Internet access to areas of the city barely reached by broadband. He’s marshaled donated PCs and equipment and tapped excess capacity on the city’s fiber-optic network to give inner-city residents a fast connection to the Web and bring state-of-the-art health care to a clinic in one of San Francisco’s least privileged neighborhoods. In many ways, Vein is just getting warmed up; he has even bigger plans.
But as outsize as his ambitions may be, Vein won’t be in line for one of the government’s grandest plans for bringing broadband into underserved parts of the country. At least for now, San Francisco is holding off on applying for a grant under the federal government’s $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, designed to encourage broadband development around the country.
It’s not that Vein doesn’t want the money, or couldn’t put it to good use. But as written, the rules governing the grants are stacked against cities like San Francisco, even though urban areas are among the places least reached by broadband and most in need of efforts like the one under way.
“I don’t want to be seen as criticizing the Administration’s efforts on the broadband problem around the country,” Vein says. “I applaud its efforts. But the rules are written in such a way that it’s difficult for a city like San Francisco to meet the requirements.” An Aug. 14 deadline for applicants for the first wave of funds was extended by six days after technical glitches snagged the application process.
To qualify for funding, applicants need to prove they’re catering to an “underserved” area. Yet the National Telecommunications & Information Administration [NTIA], which is overseeing the program, defines underserved as one where at least half of…