Broadband stimulus grant to provide $6.4 million for public computer centers

Federal broadband stimulus dollars will bring 800 new public computers to Philadelphia, the same number currently available throughout the Free Library‘s 54 regional branches.

On Friday the Division of Technology announced that it will receive $6.4 million in federal dollars to fund public computer centers, new and old, throughout the city, according to a press release.

Twenty-five existing computer centers will be improved and 48 centers created at anchor institutions that include city recreation centers, homeless shelters, public housing and community-based organizations. Hours of access at the existing public centers will also be increased, providing for 14,000 more people per week.

The project—led by DOT—includes partnerships with the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Philadelphia FIGHT, the People’s Emergency Center, Philadlephia OIC and Media Mobilizing Project will also be involved.

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Comcast comments could hurt city broadband stimulus plans

Another blow to Philadelphia’s bid for federal stimulus dollars to help bridge the digital divide may have come the way of a Center City skyscraper.

Comcast has filed controversial commentary that some speculate could hurt Philadelphia-based requests for broadband stimulus grants.

In a move seen elsewhere in the U.S., the Center City-based telecommunications giant submitted formal comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on three Philadelphia-based applications – each seeking a piece of $4.6 billion in broadband grants – including the infrastructure portion of the city’s Digital Philadelphia vision.

Local pundits say the move is intended to challenge Philly’s broadband proposals. Broadband activists, like Rutgers University Professor Todd Wolfson, say it is an attempt to suggest that the applications are ineligible for grants, which seek to provide money to areas “unserved” or “underserved” by broadband connectivity.

The NTIA requires that grants go to locations where the rate of broadband subscription is below 40 percent of households. Though broadband penetration is estimated to be as low as 50 percent in Philadelphia, Comcast’s actual coverage blankets higher percentages of the population.

Comcast submitted to the NTIA a summary of its coverage area and subscriber information in the Philadelphia region, Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice tells Technically Philly.

“We would not describe it as a ‘challenge,’ we describe it as filing factual information,” she said in a telephone interview. “There was an opportunity to object, but this is just a straight description of where we provide service and where we don’t.”

Wolfson, though, says it’s about business competition. He points to a story published in October by Bloomberg, pinning Comcast Vice President David L. Cohen against proposals that undermine Comcast’s business.

“Those applications don’t qualify for funding primarily because they are applications to provide service in areas where there is already broadband service,” Cohen told the publication.

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Friday Q&A: Gwen Shaffer, One Web Day organizer

On September 22, Philadelphia will celebrate its first One Web Day. Maybe celebrate isn’t the right word for it—this year’s event is about digital inclusion, or the lack thereof.

Modeled after Earth Day, One Web is an international event meant to raise the public’s awareness of Web issues. No, not the Facebook redesign. We’re talking issues like estimates that 50 percent Philadelphia does not have access to the Internet.

This year, organizer Gwen Shaffer is helping bring the event to Philly for the first time. “It’s an opportunity to demonstrate the positive impact broadband can have on people’s lives,” Shaffer says. She hopes to have a week of service built around the main event, a day filled with speakers, multimedia and stories about the Net’s impact.

“We will probably collect testimonials from either people who don’t have Internet and talk about how it would change their lives, and then get stories from people about how their lives were different before they had broadband,” she says. “Put a human face on what many of us take for granted.”

The organizers need your help. Shaffer says she is confident that the City will participate with the event, but the search for volunteers, corporate sponsors and additional partners has only begun. After the jump, it’s hard not to be persuaded into lending a hand.

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