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billion of federal stimulus money earmarked tobrinfg high-speed Internet access to unserved areas of the Unitex States. They see the opportunity for long-term partnerships that couldf bring themnew business. Broomfield-based Inc. LVLT) is among the network owners looking to team with companies such as wirelesesbroadband services, regional cablre television networks, rural phone companies, governments or satellitse broadband providers that may get stimuluse money.
The idea isn’t to win a one-time cash infusion, but to establish connectionzs with businesses creatingemerging technologies, such as WiMadx service, or deepen relationshipas with existing customers, such as local cables TV companies, said Jennifer Artley, a Levell 3 vice president who manages partnerships with major carriers. “Relationships are sticky,” she “We are big believers in the Internet and the stimulusw isexpanding that, so we’r e looking for ways to be a part of Level 3’s 42,000 miles of fiber-optic linex crossing the country make it a readu middleman, connecting operators of local networks to the Internet backbond they need.
Telecoms that sell broadband access directlto consumers, including Denver-based NYSE: Q), argue that stimulus mone shouldn’t go to companies playing middlemen to the information superhighway. Qwest wants stimulus funds tightly targeteds to broadband infrastructure work in unserved rural not to augmentnationalk networks, said Chuck Ward, Qwest’s presidenf for Colorado. “The taxpayer dollars shoulf only go to areas where broadband would be uneconomic to do he said.
Qwest plans to focus its requests for stimulu s funding on rural broadband expansion withinits 14-state locall service territory, Ward But, like Level 3, Qwesrt also is preparing for opportunitiess to win business from companies that win stimulus funding elsewheree and need access to a national network, he Level 3 may or may not apply for stimulusd funds directly, Artley said. The company sees a benefit in seekingy stimulus-related partnerships even if no federao stimulus money comes directly tothe company, she “It will encourage competition in the industry, which we and deepen our involvement in emergingt technologies,” she said.
Broadband in major markets is dominated by nationa telecoms suchas AT&T, Verizon, Comcasy and Qwest. Local providers reign in less-populatedc areas, but they buy access to the national networks carryingvInternet traffic. Level 3 has signal-boostingv stations at 60-mile intervalse on its fiber optic-lines, and each one can be made into an on ramp to the AccessingLevel 3’s national networi from one of those stations in a rurall area can save another company the expense of havinhg to build connections into the neares t city.
It’s not clear whetheer so-called “middle mile” services can win broadband stimulus funding from the or the Departmenytof Agriculture’s Rural Utilities The eligibility rules for broadband stimulus funding aren’t expected to be publishefd until late June. Whether stimulus money pays for middle-mils services directly or not, such connection are “critical to overall success of the broadband deployment saidMatt Davis, a telecom industry analysft for Framingham, Mass.-based research firm IDC, in a writteb statement..
Such access is also which could help the growing numberr of companies looking to establish rurall WiMaxtechnology — high-speed, wireless Internety access using microwave signals. That reality has promptedx all sorts ofnew partnerships. Rural WiMAXs company DigitalBridgeCommunications Corp., of Ashburn, Va., and the 1,500-membe National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative recently teamede in stimulus efforts. Greenwood Village-basexd Open Range Communications partnered with Level 3for middle-miler service outside the stimulus program.
Open Range, which is funded by $367 million in private equitty money and a Department ofAgriculture loan, plands to establish broadband for 546 rural communities in the next five
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