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Broadband: Time to Get Going
by Jon Greenberg on
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Across the board, Washington has about $7.2 billion available to build broadband capacity. That number includes $2.5 million from the Rural Utility program at the Dept. of Agriculture. States must compete for this money; we heard at the statewide stimulus briefing on Tuesday that every state is guaranteed at least one grant.
Reading the minutes from the last meeting of the Telecommunications Advisory Board, one got the impression that NH is a bit behind the curve. A Broadband Action Plan came out last year but none of the action steps called for anything to be built for the simple reason that there was no money for hardware. In fact, one of the first uses of federal stimulus money might be to hire someone to lead the broadband charge. That someone could be on the job by June.
You can stay current for yourself. The state has a page for stimulus and broadband.
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In her recent story about the ground breaking for the Seabrook drinking water plant, NHPR's Amy Quinton made an important point. She noted that of 56 drinking water projects in the state, only about 25% of them are under contract, that is, in the hands of contractors who will then do the work. This gives a sense of when one can expect jobs to appear based on these bricks and mortar projects.
When looking at the impact of the stimulus, the general forecast is that direct job creation will peak in the spring of 2010.
Declining home prices continue to help residential sales in New Hampshire. Prices are down about 11 percent and sales for the year are a hair above what they were in 2008.
Real estate agents are pleased with the October numbers. After a grim period stretching from last fall to early spring, there’s been a consistent if modest upward trend. The number of homes sold last month rose compared to this September and compared to October a year ago. The data come from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.
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