Who Wins, Who Loses With Broadband Grants

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Congress is debating a stimulus bill that would funnel more than $800 billion into the economy. There are two versions of it wending their way through the legislative houses, so we gathered the key differences, put them in the chart below and pointed out which ISPs and technologies win under each. Regardless of the final version, it’s safe to say that ISPs will want Congress to spend more, and equipment providers will take whatever they can get.

	House Bill	Winners	Losers	Senate Bill	Winners	Losers
Grants for Broadband	$6B			$9B
Funds The Broadband Data Improvement Act	yes	consumers, anyone wanting to get data on actual broadband penetration	ISPs that don’t want to provide this data	yes	same as House	same as House
Offers Tax Credits	no			10 percent for broadband and 20 percent for advanced broadband deployed before Jan. 1, 2011	ISPs, equipment sellers	anyone worried about national debt
Basic Broadband Speeds	5 Mbps down/1 Mbps up	DSL, cable, Verizon FiOS, other fiber	Dial-up, congested cable, DSL that’s far from the node	5 Mbps down/1 Mbps up (only defined for tax credits)	same as House	same as House
Advanced Broadband Speeds	45 Mbps down/15 Mbps up	Comcast, Verizon, smaller all-fiber networks	AT&T, Qwest, smaller fiber-to-the-node and DSL providers; cable companies that aren’t upgrading to DOCSIS 3.0	100 Mbps down/20 Mbps up (only defined for tax credits)	Verizon FiOS, other all fiber providers	AT&T, Qwest, Comcast (C cmsca), Cox, Time Warner Cable, Charter
Basic Wireless Broadband Speeds	no			no
Advanced Wireless Broadband Speeds	3 Mbps down/1Mbps up	Clearwire, AT&T’s HSPA+ network, Verizon’s LTE network	T-Mobile’s HSPA network, Sprint’s EVDO network, Pre-WiMAX networks	3 Mbps down/768 kbps up (only defined for tax credits)	same as House	Consumers, especially those in rural areas only served by wireless. Anyone who wants to upload data over a wireless connection
Net Neutrality Language	FCC will define “open access” within 45 days of passage	Depends on how it’s defined	Depends on how it’s defined	Offers “interconnection and nondiscrimination requirements” but no definition	Depends on how it’s defined	Depends on how it’s defined