In Broadband Grants, $62.5 Million To Build Network for Distance Learning, Telemedicine
By Norman Oder Jul 6, 2010Amid $795 million in grants and loans for broadband expansion announced July 2 by the White House is $62.5 million to a group of national research and education networking organizations to link libraries, schools, and other organizations and offer the capacity for high-bandwidth applications like telemedicine and distance learning.
The organizations include Internet2 (aka University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development), National LambdaRail, Indiana University, and the Northern Tier Network Consortium.
The goal, in collaboration with several technology companies (Ciena, Cisco, Infinera, and Juniper Networks), is to build a 100 Gigabit per second network, the United States Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN), to link regional networks.
The grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will be supplemented with $34.3 million from the proposal partners and suppliers.
Big plans
A new not-for-profit organization, also called U.S. UCAN, will be run by both the research and education networking community and representatives of community anchor institutions, including libraries and schools, as well as community colleges, health centers, and public safety organizations. A governing body of community anchors will help establish needs.
According to sponsors, this project "provides a jumpstart in implementing the FCC National Broadband Plan... which recommends the development of a unified network dedicated to community anchor institutions that builds on the extensive investment the research and education community has already made in national network infrastructure and leverages the human expertise and collaborations that have already developed to greatly accelerate the delivery of broadband to all of the nation's community anchor institutions."
