A telling story this morning in the rounds from the USA Today, taking a big picture look at the bumps in the road in awarding broadband stimulus funds. We’ve heard from enough carriers and vendors about the challenges here — but it’s bracing to read it in the mainstream press, and a reality check as this process moves forward.
Also today: kudos to Verizon and AT&T from market-watchers; Google turns to ‘voice communications’ for supporting its Nexus One phone; and more.
Critics worry the funds won’t get doled out quickly enough, but the government says it will meet its deadlines. “We’re expecting quite a few announcements in the next month and a half,” says NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling.
Good data on important market trends that today are driving the bulk of mobile data and advanced service growth.
Just a rumor at this point but adding Google Voice to its Google Apps offerings to large businesses is no-brainer.
Steady performance and a bit of cash-per-share makes telco bellwethers a good bet, this report says.
Sales are slower-than-expected and channel and customer service issues (even anticipated ones from increasingly savvy mobile consumers) are the cause. Did Google just expose its self-serve money-printing engine to the challenges of actually serving customers?