House passes bill directing $1B toward wireless broadband grants - RCR Wireless News

The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved legislation that makes at least $1 billion available in wireless broadband grants and keeps intact open-access provisions opposed by the mobile-phone industry.

Six billion dollars of the $825 billion economic recovery measure is earmarked to foster deployment of high-speed Internet service in unserved and underseved areas of the country. The broadband stimulus measure calls for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a Commerce Department unit that advises the president on tech policy and manages federal government spectrum, to oversee a $2.8 billion broadband grant program. Wireless broadband grants would comprise $1 billion of that funding level. The remainder of the $6 billion is expected to be administered by the Rural Utilities Service’s broadband loan program.

The House Appropriations Committee, like the Commerce panel, did not remove open-access provisions, as the wireless industry and others had suggested.

House passes bill directing $1B toward wireless broadband grants - RCR Wireless News