The National Telecommunications & Information Administration Monday (April 26) handed out the last of its grants in the first round (there will be two NTIA rounds) of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), which is the broadband investment portion of the stimulus package.
According to NTIA, it gave out $1.2 billion of its allocation (it has $4.7 billion) to projects affecting 45 states and territories.
The most recent grants totaled $114 million and included infrastructure grants plus a $28.5 million multi-state adoption grant for computer training broadband awareness, applications, and wireless Internet in 50 cities and towns in 31 states.
NTIA is currently vetting the second round of bidders for its broadband bucks.
The program has come under fire from existing broadband providers because they say some of the money is going to overbuild in areas where there is already broadband service.
