Meanwhile, National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief Larry Strickling offered an update Monday on the work his agency is doing to facilitate broadband deployment through the disbursement of billions of economic stimulus dollars. He told a crowd in Charleston, W.Va., that NTIA last month received 2,200 applications requesting $28 billion in funding (seven times the amount that officials allocated for the first round of solicitations).

The first NTIA broadband grants will be announced in November and he hopes to complete the first round of awards by the end of the year. Strickling also said his team is contemplating whether to combine the projected second and third rounds of funding into one mega-round. If the rounds are combined, NTIA will release a second notice of funds available by December, with an application deadline of early 2010. The timetable should give all interested parties ample time to file, he said.