As we've discussed here on 4Ginfo several times this year, the economic stimulus plan put into place by Congress set aside quite a bit of money for broadband expansion - $7.2 billion, in fact. The goal of the money is to increase availability of high-speed internet in rural and under-served areas of the country (there are still MILLIONS of Americans for whom dial-up internet is the only option). Only a portion of the money is allocated specifically for mobile broadband, but the funds have generated a lot of interest from thousands of companies, including Clearwire.
The first round of applications were due recently, and Obama officials received a whopping 2,200 applications from companies and organizations hoping to be awarded a piece of the stimulus money. All of the applications will eventually become public, but not much is known about who applied for what at this point, although Clearwire themselves has confirmed that they requested money. What specifically Clearwire requested money for is unknown right now, but it seems likely that they would be requesting money for expanding their 4G WiMAX network. Since Clear's service is wireless and relatively affordable, we hope the officials in charge will approve their request - it seems like a no-brainer!
Stay tuned for the results on Clearwire's request - the applications are going to be reviewed over the next couple of weeks and the applicants will know whether they've made it through the first round of review by the end of September (the money won't be distributed for a big longer).
