[1st-mile-nm] "Wired to fail"

[Masha Zager]

According to a GAO report, RUS awarded over $3 billion for the BIP stimulus program, which was considerably more money than it had budgeted (because some loans were repaid and recycled), and most of the projects were in fact built. If $277 million is in fact left over (which I would doubt), that’s less than 10% of the total. Estimated subscribers as of 2014 were about 730,000. Presumably, homes passed exceed the number of subscribers by quite a bit, and take rates should rise as time goes on. The goals were homes passed, not subscribers. 

 

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-14-511

 

Certainly the program was not perfect (unsurprising, given that it was put together in a big hurry with a lot of stringent or even impossible conditions) but to paint it as a disaster doesn’t seem fair.

 

Likewise with the regular RUS broadband program, which has faced a number of hurdles (including lack of funding for several years because the Farm Bill was years late) but has still funded many successful projects. Anyone who has ever applied for a RUS loan will tell you they put a lot of effort (way too much effort, in the view of most borrowers) into “helping the applicant develop a workable plan.”

 

 

 

From: 1st-mile-nm [mailto:1st-mile-nm-bounces at mailman.dcn.org] On Behalf Of Roger Snodgrass
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2015 3:17 PM
To: 1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org
Subject: Re: [1st-mile-nm] "Wired to fail"

 

Thanks for the feedback on this. Re-reading with the additional context, I can see why  Richard and Steve think the author was too hard on RUS. My thinking was that providing the additional access was so important, something is wrong with a program that gives out such a small fraction of its money, and certainly the agency running the program must be accountable, even if some or many of the problems lie elsewhere. Maybe some part of the money needs to help the applicant develop a workable plan, for example. Also, I didn't like the sound of the agency's persistent refusal to provide information, which is in my book is a flashing neon admission of failure. What good will it do in the future to offer local subsidies if they are doomed to fail, regardless of whether it's the granting institution or the grantee and local governmen and regulatory pitfalls or the monopolizing corporate utilities, causing the problems? The result compared to money available is pathetic. Also, there is mention of additional work going on in New Mexico. Does anybody know what that refers to?

Thanks,

Roger

 

On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 5:34 PM, Roger Snodgrass <roger.sno at gmail.com> wrote:

I assume this group knows all about this, but just in case:



"Wired to fail: How a little known agency mishandled several billion dollars of stimulus money trying to expand broadband coverage to rural communities," by Tony Romm: "A POLITICO investigation has found that roughly half of the nearly 300 projects that [the Rural Utilities Service] approved as part of the 2009 Recovery Act have not yet drawn down the full amounts they were awarded. ... If these networks do not draw all their cash by the end of September, they will have to forfeit what remains. In other words, they altogether may squander as much as $277 million in still-untapped federal funds, which can't be spent elsewhere in other neglected rural communities. ...

"[S]cores of rural residents who should have benefited from better Internet access ... might continue to lack access to the sort of reliable, high-speed service that is common in America's cities. Even RUS admits it's not going to provide better service to the 7 million residents it once touted; instead, the number in the hundreds of thousands." http://politi.co/1SKKGjg <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6899ff94fe0d350b4d966e6a6eef991e804ac2e62a5593e34907f6223d7a0b62> 



-- 


Roger Snodgrass
Twitter @pomotor
https://twitter.com/Pomotor
home 505-424-8366
cell 505-920-3677
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-- 


Roger Snodgrass
Twitter @pomotor
https://twitter.com/Pomotor
home 505-424-8366
cell 505-920-3677
l\lllllllll/llllll/\llllll\ll

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