Jan 24
2010
2010
On February 17th, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which funded a number of initiatives including two broadband stimulus programs, BIP and BTOP, administered by RUS and NTIA respectively. These programs are focused on making broadband available and affordable for all Americans with ARRA driving a significant number of independent and competitive operators in rural areas to expedite the migration to IP-enabled networks.
The move to an all IP network brings operating efficiencies, advanced subscriber services (such as HD Voice, Virtual PBX, Find Me/Follow Me and IP Conferencing) as well as anytime/anywhere subscriber access and account management, and we expect there to be strong demand in these areas, in addition to the strong demand for broadband access. These welcomed stimulus programs bring critical funding to rural operators, foster economic growth, and help to place all subscribers across the United States, regardless of geographic location, on equal footing for access to the most advanced voice and data services that are available today.
