Broadband Demand & Cell Phone Oops

Broadband Demand & Cell Phone Oops. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Over 2,200 applications have been received in the first round of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for broadband infrastructure funding according to David Villano of the Rural Utilities Service.

VILLANO: As a result we made a little over $4 billion dollars available we have $28 billion dollars worth of requests from 2200 applicants all throughout the Unites States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and all the territories. We weren’t expecting $28 billion worth of requests though we are real pleased to see that there are people who have an interest in bringing broadband to rural America and that are stepping and meeting the President’s challenge of getting broadband service out to these un-served communities.

The State of Oregon is wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on unnecessary cell phone charges. Auditors determined the state could have avoided at least $182,000 in service charges if it had shifted to lower-cost plans for phones barely in use. Over the same period, the state had about $270,000 in charges for use that exceeded plan limits. More than 8,000 state workers are given cell phones. Auditors also found charges for missing phones and recommended that agencies update their cell phone inventories and make sure workers turn in their phones when they quit.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange Report.

(GRANGE)

That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.