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There’s been quite a lot of controversy around the Broadband Stimulus Plan recently – and many of the concerns, questions and yes, complaints need to be put under the microscope. However one thing that is without doubt in our minds is the inherent value and benefit of the underlying intention of the plan – to expand high speed access so that it is readily available and affordable to everyone, no matter where they live or work. While we wholeheartedly applaud the premise of this initiative, we are also heavily invested in the details and recognize that more research and work must be done for the effort to realize its true promise. Mapping is obviously a big issue that needs more attention, as noted by GigaOM recently….

“[the Fed] has no idea where people without broadband live — which is like planning targeted radiation therapy for a cancer without knowing where the cancer is.”

Last week, four large carriers – Qwest, AT&T, Verizon and Comcast – announced they would not be applying for broadband stimulus funds in the first round of applications that concluded 8/20. The companies cited restrictive regulations, enforced net neutrality and a flaw definition of “underserved areas.” Sean Buckley of Fierce Telecom reached this conclusion in his coverage:

“I can only hope the NTIA spends more time analyzing how their rules affect smaller service providers seeing greater demand for high-speed connections in smaller communities.”

To get the picture where the shovel breaks ground, Broadband Ignite spoke with John Stuart, Operations Manager at Midvale Telephone Exchange, an Idaho-based Local Exchange Carrier serving very rural areas across Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. John has been at Midvale for 22 years and knows a lot about wiring up remote communities. He sees a lot of room for improvement in the current plan and shared some thoughts with us.

The topic of right-of-way requirements – or the permits that are necessary to break ground, build towers and run wire and cables – came up throughout our conversation.

“Some departments don’t even have the people or specialists to process permits,” John explains. “To process them you need to hire these people – stimulus funding won’t address these hurdles.”

John also highlights the rigid and perhaps arbitrary requirements for grant applications, such as one that gives priority to projects that can commence immediately upon approval.

“Program administrators want shovel-ready type projects,” John says, noting that it doesn’t work this way.

“Many of these efforts are multi-year projects that can’t be completed in a two-year time frame (another provision in the grant guidelines). You can’t just throw Federal dollars at projects and expect the local and municipal challenges go away,” he adds.

We asked John what if anything might improve the plan and ultimately help to bring broadband to rural areas.

He offers a few ideas such as investing in the municipal departments the telephone companies have to work with to provide these services. He also suggests broadening the grant provisions around the time frame for project completion, and in some instances removing a time frame. His final recommendation was for the administration teams overseeing the plan to bring in front line experts to learn more about what is involved in the process of connecting rural regions.

Despite some of the challenges John sees in the current plan, he says Midvale is applying for some of the grants to do middle mile projects where they have permits in place or pending, and that they have already received several Rural Utility Service (RUS) loans.

So as is turns out, billions of dollars sure attracts attention, and the funding is definitely designed to address a vital issue. But where the rubber hits the road Washington needs more input from the operators who have been fighting the good broadband fight for many years now.