WASHINGTON-Those wishing to bring to market new and updated technologies, including access to the Information Superhighway, should look at the wireless industry to provide that access, said Kathryn Condello, vice president of industry operations for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Condello was a panelist at a two-day conference last week sponsored by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The NTIA conference highlighted the winners of this year’s Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program grants.
“What is sad to note is that as I sit here, I do not see a lot of wireless applications,” she told the conference.
This year is the fifth year TIIAP grants have been awarded by NTIA. In September, 46 TIIAP grants were awarded in 35 states and the District of Columbia, totaling $18.5 million and matched by $24 million in non-federal funds.
The grants-which must be matched by non-federal funding-are used for a wide range of activities involved in telecommunications connections, from purchasing equipment to training staff, users and others about using equipment and software. The grants also are used to evaluate the proposed programs and to disseminate the projects’ findings so that all grantees can learn from one another, said Larry Irving, assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information.
“The problems and solutions in one situation are almost always relevant in other [situations] … Just putting money out there means nothing to me, it is putting both money and information out on the streets [that is important to me] … If these issues don’t touch you today, they will come back to bite you tomorrow,” Irving said.
Wireless uses of TIIAP grant money can be as simple as wireless phones in classrooms, or as complicated as access to the Internet, Condello said, noting that “the one thing teachers want in the classroom is a wireless telephone.”
Irving, who also heads NTIA, seemed to pre-empt Condello’s criticisms in his opening remarks when he said that the purpose of TIIAP grants is “to make life on this planet better … It shouldn’t be about wireless devices, it should be about how [technologies] affect communities.”
