$250 million of the $7.2 billion allocated for broadband stimulus money is set aside specifically for broadband adoption.

Forty percent of broadband nonadopters are from communities of color.

Gartner Research projects that global information technology spending will total $3.2 trillion in 2009, a decline of roughly 4% from the $3.3 trillion spent on IT in 2008. 

A 7% increase in broadband penetration in underserved parts of the country could stimulate the economy by more than $134 billion.

According to a Telecommunications Industry Association report, despite the expectation of broadband stimulus funds from the federal government in the coming months, US spending on access equipment should fall 27% this year and keep declining for the next two years before springing back to growth.

The Obama administration’s health technology plan, which is part of the economic recovery package, includes incentive payments for adopting electronic health records — more than $40,000 per physician and up to several million dollars for hospitals.

“National economic-stimulus packages include large capital investments for broadband, including the U.S., France and others.

A study by Connected Nation, a non-profit broadband lobbying group, estimates that 173,000 jobs could be created in Texas alone by extending high-speed connections across the state.

It thus would make no sense to attach speed prerequisites [to broadband funding programs established by Congress in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)] beyond, for example, a maximum information transfer rate of at least 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps upstream.

One important distinction between how the USDA and the NTIA will distribute funds is that USDA grants require 75% of the area served by an approved project to be a “rural” area without sufficient broadband.