[09.06]

BROADBAND DEVELOPMENT GAINS MOMENTUM

THOMAS DORR, undersecretary for rural development, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Dorr oversees the USDA's $87 billion portfolio of business, housing and infrastructure loans to rural America, including $1 billion for the broadband development program. In September 2006, he wasn't ready to declare the broadband program a success.

UPDATE:

IN OCTOBER 2007, speaking to a group of telcos in Iowa, Dorr said that total investment in Iowa telecommunications infrastructure alone from 2001 through 2006 reached more than $88 million. Nationally it's over $5.7 billion. He also told The Independent that he feels the progress is “improving.” (See related story on page 11.)

[04.07]

IN THE INTEREST OF HEALTH CARE

LEST IT DISAPPEAR, the FCC began encouraging rural health care providers to take advantage of money available in its one-year-old Pilot Program for Enhanced Access to Advanced Telecommunications and Information Services in order to connect with providers nationwide. There was about $100 million in the pot last year.

UPDATE:

BASED ON GROWING INTEREST, the FCC expanded the program by allotting $417 million to promote broadband telehealth networks. The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association also began encouraging its service provider members to engage health care professionals in their communities, hoping that health care networks might be springboards to building regional networks for rural operators. Stay tuned for upcoming issues in which we cover telcos that have tapped into this opportunity. In the meantime, the Utah Telehealth Network has been approved for $9 million, and the Rural Nebraska Healthcare Network will receive $19.3 million. The West Virginia Telehealth Alliance will get $8.4 million, and folks at the Rural Western and Central Maine Broadband Initiative will receive $3.6 million. Someone has to provide that connectivity.

[09.07]

SERIAL CEO

FORMER EMBARQ CEO Dan Hesse said he never forgot a decade-old lesson while at AT&T Wireless from a product called Wireless Office. It used picocells, so mobile users entering a building were automatically switched over to the in-building network. It was a hit, and Hesse had an epiphany that carried over to Embarq's current Smart Connect service. “That's the holy grail that we had 10 years ago,” Hesse said. “It was a huge ‘ah-hah!’”

UPDATE:

SEEMS HESSE NEVER FORGOT the lessons of his youth either. He had what might be called a peripatetic childhood, moving wherever the military restationed his father. Hesse attended 10 different schools before he turned 18. After two years leading the newly formed Embarq, Hesse was gone again, still in search of the next “ah-hah.” He returned to Sprint on Dec.18 and recently was quoted in The Kansas City Star: “I will try to make as many decisions as I can quickly. It is important to come in, get the facts, get the data and then make a decision and move.” Move? Again? Really? We hope he didn't mean that in his customary fashion.

RELATED READINGS: Learn more online at telephonyonline.com/independent