Digital USA - $7bn broadband handouts from Obama, but no takers

A report in the Wall Street Journal that the Obama administration will be shovelling out $7.2bn for stimulating broadband rollout looks to be another case of the US showing the UK how things should be done.

But, hang on a minute – none of the big US carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast have started to fill out the forms for this cash bonanza.

The reason looks to be the US communications regulator applying a shedload of red tape to the contracts and putting profit-sapping restrictions on network connections built with the funds.

On this side of the pond, UK regulator Ofcom and BT have already shaken on the deal, and allowed BT to make a good “return on its investment” for rolling out optical-fibre connectivity for high-speed, 100Mbit/s-plus connections.

So it looks like a tale of two countries, with the US carriers begging for Ofcoms approach to regulate future government “broadband stimulus”, and BT saying “not in my backyard” to the fiscal strictures being applied to US carriers if they bring their wheelbarrows along for some broadband funds.

As Joe Brown once sang – "What a crazy world we're living in!"

By Dave Bailey