Qwest, the nation's third-largest local phone company, says it will not apply for the first round of a $7.2 billion federal stimulus program expanding the reach of high-speed Internet because participating under its current rules doesn't make financial sense. The company wanted stimulus money to fund the neighborhood-level broadband networks that cost too much to realistically build in less populated areas. The rules have been criticized for skewing much of the stimulus money to projects connecting people living at least 50 miles outside cities and towns instead of larger populations of rural dwellers living closer to communities, and for putting applications covering slower-speed wireless broadband services on the same footing as wireline services with faster download speeds. US Telecom, a broadband industry association that Qwest joined last month, wrote to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke urging that the agencies not wait and change the rules immediately.
