Few Major Problems on Deadline Day for Broadband Grant Applications
The NTIA announced Thursday that applicants who couldn’t file supporting documents for applications for grants under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program have until 5 p.m. Monday to send the papers by hand-delivery, overnight express or regular mail. The system generally seemed to work well Thursday, the last day for first-round applications.
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“This week the additions of computer capacity really helped,” said an industry source involved in making filings. “Today, you could tell there was congestion on the network and there were brief periods when it was inaccessible, but applications are going through.”
Andy Lipman, a Bingham McCutchen lawyer, said giving applicants extra time to file support documents probably relieved pressure on the IT system. Lipman said applicants learned a number of lessons in the first round. “If you need to file as an applicant, give yourself plenty of cushion,” he said. “Expect the unexpected. … I think some of the processes in the future may be streamlined. I think there were definitely some lessons learned.”
A Maryland consortium of 11 counties completed its application last week but had trouble uploading attachments and was kicked out of the submission system several times, said Ira Levy, director of information systems for Howard County, which is coordinating the effort. The group had run into the same problem with economic stimulus efforts such as the energy program, he said.
Quirks in the system along with slow servers complicated submissions, Levy said. Limits on uploads seemed to change throughout the process, and the Maryland consortium had to trim pages to comply, he said. After its submission, the system reformatted some of the group’s Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, cutting off some columns and moving them to a new page, he said. But Levy expects application reviewers to get in touch with applicants about any problems with reading attachments, as reviewers of energy stimulus applications did, he said. Most companies seemed to be waiting until the deadline had passed to announce their applications.
Wiley Rein clients targeting round one have successfully filed their electronic applications, consultant Hilda Legg told us. She said the next step is to prepare for the first- phase review, looking at compliance programs and making sure the clients are aware of all compliance issues and their applications get into the phase-two process of the application review. The firm also will be working with applicants targeting round two and those who couldn’t file for round one, she said. Some round-one applicants weren’t familiar with federal government programs, she added.