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Early this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its latest round of funding for rural broadband projects, a program aimed at bringing farms, ranches and other rural communities onto the Net. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman praised the loans as part of President Bush's efforts to bring broadband "to every home in America by the year 2007."
Is it just coincidence that these lucky Houston suburbs are part of House Republican Leader Tom Delay's congressional district?
Pork? Maybe. String pulling by DeLay or the Texas-friendly White House? That's hard to say. An Agriculture Department official speaking on background said the agency's staffers didn't get any calls from "DeLay or anyone else" on the loan, slated for Houston-based ETS Telephone & Subsidiaries.
But the alternative explanation isn't much better: Bush's plan for broadband isn't working.
According to the USDA official, the agency is having a hard time finding people to take the $2.2 billion in funding available this year. That's why a bunch of ritzy suburban developments are getting money that was supposed to be earmarked for genuinely rural areas--they asked, and nobody else was standing ahead of them in line.
The rural broadband program has been among the few active steps U.S. policymakers have taken to address a growing digital divide, amid concerns that other countries, such as Canada, South Korea and Japan, are far ahead in broadband penetration and average speeds. Indeed, recent news that many Japanese consumers can now get 100mbps connections for just $38 has made our cable modems look like tin cans and string.
The program, passed as part of a farm support bill in 2002, provides low-interest loans to private companies building networks in communities with less than 20,000 people. It requires recipients to invest their own money as well and to have real, potentially sustainable business plans in place.
"If government dollars are to be spent, then rural areas having that kind of access is beneficial," said Gene Hall, a spokesman for the Texas Farm Bureau. "The reason the Farm Bureau is for this concept is to make sure farmers and ranchers (live) where there really is limited access...to those services."
That doesn't quite describe what's happening in Houston.
ETS Telephone & Subsidiaries, which operates in the Houston area under the name En-Touch Systems, is getting $22.7 million in rural broadband funds, one of the largest allotments in the program's two-year history. The company's mandate, as advertised on its Web site, is to "provide bundled telecommunications services to quality master-planned communities." A map of its coverage areas shows the company staying squarely inside the suburban reach of Houston, as opposed to reaching the outlying open-space areas.
The advertising copy for one of the En-Touch communities tells it pretty much like it is: "Water and golf are the themes for Avalon at Seven Meadows, where 96 percent of all home sites will have views of 28 acres of lakes with fountains, or of the Meadowbrook Farms Golf Club, featuring an 18-hole championship course designed by Greg Norman."
That company's president, Rich Gerstemeier, did not return repeated calls for comment.
None of this is to say that the USDA isn't doing excellent work with other projects. More than $600 million in low-interest loans have been given out under the rural broadband initiative, to some genuinely needy areas.
But if the administration is having such difficulty finding broadband-impaired regions that it has to give En-Touch a helping hand, the program is seriously flawed. Both Bush and Kerry have noted that broadband access can make an economically challenged region viable again. This is money that could literally save rural towns from extinction.
A bunch of million-dollar homes built around golf courses don't need that kind of help. If DeLay and Bush have any real concern for rural broadband and the jobs it will bring, they'll find a way to get this money to communities that really need it.
Biography
John Borland is a senior staff writer at CNET News.com. In 2003, he co-authored a book about the culture of computer gaming, called "Dungeons and Dreamers."
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If the same held true for Clinton or Pelosi would you have made the same comments about them in your story??? Probably not. Without actual facts to backup up unnecessary comments and since the story wasn't labeled as an editorial, report the story and leave your personal liberal bias out of it. Did they not teach you that in Journalism?
Second, regarding the statement, "Liberal reporters feel the need to make political statements that have absolutely no bearing on the story as a whole. " You've got to be kidding. "Conservative reporters feel the need to make political statements that have absolutely no bearing on the story as a whole" -- and yet, you are silent when they do it.
Third, what is really important (and ignored) is that millions of dollars are being wasted providing millionaires with government subsidized, low-cost broadband internet access. In spite of this manifest "waste and abuse," the only thing you find of concern is that a possible link to porkbarrel corruption is pointed out.
And you can bet that Tom Delay will not be getting up on his legs to denounce this waste, either.
mp
Why is it that reactionary fruitcakes always generalize into the abstactions of their own delusion. Without actual facts to refute the actual facts of the story and its implications: Shut Up.
claim and didn't even bother to say maybe. Bush and DeLay need
to figure thigs out????? Hell, the whole government needs to
figure things out. And there's a fat chance in hell that they will.
Maybe the write should have been glad that LBJ still wasn't in
office. The LBJ pork slice would be ten times as big, and the
writer would have been fed his own butt for writing aboout it.
a pork barrel project that takes money, "our money", and gives it
to the wealthy. The company involved should not have been
given any money since they obviously are not following the
mandate the money was earmarked for. I'm sure(wink, wink,
nudge, nudge) DeLay had no influence at all. I would call it bias
that a congressional district benefits unfairly, because a senator
got big bucks from a campaign contributor and don't tell me he
got no money from that telecom.
If you're going to invest money in infrastructure, make sure
everybody benefits. I would love to see 100mbps for $38/
month, hell, give me 10mbps for $19/month and I'd be ecstatic,
but not exclusively in upperclass neighborhoods.
I lived in the area they are talking about and had neighbors with $1 million mansions as well, but guess what; there are very poor folks that live right next door to those mansions. Just because my neighbors are millionaires does not mean that I am. Anyone who really knows this area, or has lived in Houston for long period knows exactly what I am talking about. It is not the same as living in a wealthy suburb of New York or Hollywood...
Therefore, unless you live in that area and know the area they are talking about, you do not have much right to criticize... If it were not for Tom's efforts, I would have still been using dial-up (and BTW, I am not rich) while I was living there. Those of us who actually live / lived there and are affected by all of this are VERY thankful for what they have done. It is hardly the way the author portrays it. It is not just a bunch of rich people that benefit from these efforts. There were a lot of poor and medium income families that also benefited from these efforts. I consider that fair, and more importantly, at least Tom isnt sitting on his thumbs doing nothing about this problem. He saw that there were funds available and he used them. Whats wrong with that?!? Even the author indicates that much of the funds have not been used and no one is asking for help. Why is that??
Instead of bashing on Tom Delay and the good he has done with these funds, the author should have been asking all the other folks why they HAVENT been doing the same thing!! Why are they not asking for funds to help stimulate broadband in other areas??? Thats what I want to know&
The company happens to be located in Houston, DeLay's base, and the developments are in its suburbs, just like Sugerland, his home.
And most of you are calling out the writer because he's a "liberal" (in your opinion of course)???
This deal stinks and the excuses for doing it are pitiful. No one else had applied? Yeah, right. Then fix the process. But don't just give away the money.
While the company got the money by the rules, it goes against the spirit of the program to award help to someone who doesn't need it.
I wish someone would fix the application process, the rules stipulate it is only for areas not currently served, and you have to provide 10 computer access points free. You also have to give away service to community centers (which we already do), but the majority of major players in this industry have already brokered deals to get on city water towers in exchange for the free service to libraries, police, etc.
This makes it even harder for the small business, like us, who has to pay big bucks every month to the Telco for a backbone to the net. We pay well over $1600 a month for 2 T1's, and since we already have our prices cut down to what the market can bear, there is little room to give away anything. Of course, if we were handed $22.7 million to operate, I could cover half of Texas with broadband. The fact is that while I have made arrangements to light up another 38 towers across the state, I will never see any help from the RUS. It is a shame that we cannot afford to do it ourselves, it is a bigger shame the RUS gives away the money that should go to making it happen.
Tom Johnson
802DSL.COM
Cat Spring Tx
979-865-8460
Areas that already have multiple broadband choices (between cable and DSL)
get additional choices while some of us in the USA are STUCK on dialup
with no end in site.
TWC wants to charge me over $25,000 (US dollars) just for CABLE installation.
They also cant get my address right, neither the town nor the zip code.
There is not another area left in the country with this problem!!
I live in Highland NY, with zip code 12528.
The houses with addresses on Swartekill Road numbered greater than 400 have
Time Warner Cable/ Road Runner. The houses with addresses under 200 have
Cablevision/Optimum online. Those of us between 100 and 400 on Swartekill Rd
have no CABLE TV (for 3 decades) and no chance of getting DSL either.
Survey's done by Time Warner are now over $25,000; but they are sent to wrong
address and list our town (100 - 400 Swartekill Road) incorrectly. TWC insist
we are in Town of Esopus at zipcode 12429. Our correct town is Highland NY
with zipcode 12528. Would you accept a survey result of $25,000 and hand over
that much money to a company that can't even straighten out their customer
database, and have the addresses correct?
Lastly, because our addresses are incorrect in their (TWC) database
our are requests are not being counted correctly - not being counted at all!
In fact, when I call TWC for service they insist that I am not in there area.
It takes several minutes to convince their rep that this is TWC area. I am sick
of this conversation. For 6 years I have been calling TWC every month and
getting no where. Everybody else can get high speed for free installation
or $59 installation charge, Why do I have to pay $25,000 installation charge?
and then have my address in the wrong town and zipcode yet.
I still on dialup - probably forever.
This is clearly a case of government regulation gone wrong.
Cablevision has informally told me over the phone
that they would like to build cable in my area
and absorb the cost (no mention of any money, not $25,000)
but that they cannot because they would need a franchise.
Who would create a franchise for 20 customers?
Before you suggest satellite internet with Directway or Starband:
I've considered satellite internet but I reject it as "fake" internet, for 2 reasons:
[1] VPN is required to access my employers corporate network
(in order to telecomute, work at home, whatever you call it).
VPN is a packet by packet encryption/decryption, which because it is
done per packet, slows down all traffic to dialup speed.
[2] The FAP (the terms and conditions) for both Directway and Starband
(current satellite internet providers) also restrict downloads to about
500 Megabytes in a 24 hour period, else they slow down the connection
to dialup speed. (500 Megabytes is less data than 1 CD)
Thus I feel, satellite internet is not for me, because I would usually (23 hours a day)
be slowed to down dialup speed. I already use 2 dialup lines at the same
time, so I'd probably be even slower than that.