Less than half the stimulus spent--but more dribbles on the way as election nears

Press release

"The Ohio Middle Mile Consortium announced today that Com Net, Inc., a founding member, has been awarded federal stimulus funding that will add almost 700 new miles of broadband fiber to rural and underserved communities throughout western Ohio.

“This is a great day for Ohio. Comprehensive broadband services for the state are vital to enhancing education, retraining our displaced workforce and preparing our future workforce to drive Ohio economic development,” said Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric D. Fingerhut, who had called on the Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet), the technology operations arm of the University System of Ohio, to coordinate a unified approach for federal stimulus broadband applications.

OMMC partners Com Net, Inc., Horizon Telcom, OneCommunity and OARnet formed a public-private partnership to create a comprehensive statewide plan to expand broadband infrastructure to the underserved and unserved areas of the state. This plan will focus on community anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals, public safety and local governments to ensure the development of an affordable and sustainable broadband program.

In March 2010, the OMMC members submitted applications to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) to develop a Comprehensive Community Infrastructure (CCI). BTOP funding was established as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), better known as the federal stimulus package.

As part of its first wave of announcements, the NTIA awarded $30 million in federal stimulus funding . . "

The ARRA stimulus, AKA Obama slush fund. . . not to be confused with the BP Obama slush fund, which is too small to even register.