Thursday, May 14, 2009

The Story of the Money

We have two stories about giants chasing federal money. I don't know if you remember but I think all federal dollars should be earmarked for small businesses. Small business is the job creation engine of our nation. And I'm tired of bailing out the Too Big to Fail.

"A day after announcing its $5.25 billion acquisition of the remaining rural landline business of Verizon, Frontier Communications is reporting that it will pursue broadband stimulus funds from the federal Recovery Act. ....In Frontier's press release on the deal, Wilderotter states,"With more than 7 million access lines in 27 states, we will be the largest pure rural communications provider of voice, broadband and video services in the U.S. Frontier is committed to providing our customers with state-of-the-art technology and innovative products." [source]

This means that Frontier not only gets mega-USF bucks to support its rural voice business, it will be itching -- and a front runner - to win BTOP dollars for rural broadband network builds. Despite what House Chairman Rick Boucher said here.

Here's a nice map of where Frontier will be looking to spend gov't money some day. Build around them.

IN other Big Corp news, Tech giants line up for e-health dollars.

With billions in stimulus dollars available to help doctors and hospitals digitize their health records, it stands to reason that tech companies want to make spending that money as easy as possible. ... Several of the players--Allscripts, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft, and Nuance Communications--have teamed up in an alliance aimed at educating doctors on the many tools available to help set up electronic health records. ... The EHR Stimulus Alliance is pulling out all the stops, with a road tour, Webcasts, telephone hotline, and other tools all aimed at demystifying the technology and showing case studies of where it has worked. .... President Obama's stimulus package provides on the order of $20 billion for health care technology, with the central focus being nudging hospitals and doctors to move their records from manila folders to computers. Even with the money, though, it's seen as a daunting task. [CNET]

E-Health and tele-health (especially rural tele-medicine) is one way that government can spend money wisely. It creates jobs, drives down the operational costs of healthcare, drives tech spending. All good. Go get some.

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