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The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) provides this Quarterly Report on the status of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). This Report focuses on the Program’s activities from April 1 to June 30, 2012. From April to June 2012, BTOP grant recipients continued to demonstrate strong performance across the Program’s FY12 goals. These positive results have helped the Program deliver significant progress in areas such as new fiber-optic infrastructure construction, the opening of new PCCs, and thousands of new broadband subscribers now experiencing the benefits of high-speed Internet service. Recipients’ quarterly progress reports, which were made public at the beginning of September 2012, provide a more granular depiction of these results.

The Program made considerable progress in deploying network miles during this quarter with widespread construction activity occurring during spring 2012. Recipients also continued to lease dark fiber and existing broadband facilities when available. BTOP recipients also exceeded NTIA’s FY12 goal to deploy 50,000 new or upgraded network miles across the country. Recipients deployed nearly 15,000 network miles during the past quarter, bringing the total number of miles to more than 72,000. Through June 30, 2012, recipients were deploying facilities in 47 states and territories. NTIA expects the pace of network construction to remain strong through the summer and fall of 2012 as most recipients are engaged in the implementation phase of their projects.

Last quarter, BTOP recipients connected and/or improved service to nearly 1,700 anchor institutions within their project areas, bringing the total number of institutions to more than 10,000 across 41 states and territories. The total number of anchors connected with BTOP funds increased by 20 percent from the previous quarter. With the activity this quarter, NTIA reached its FY12 goal to connect 10,000 institutions. As BTOP recipients deploy additional new network miles, they will continue to provide more institutions with faster and more reliable high-speed Internet access.

Through June 2012, 64 BTOP recipients installed more than 36,000 new workstations in Public Computer Centers across 40 states. PCC recipients continued to make considerable progress last quarter, exceeding the FY12 goal to install 35,000 new or upgraded public workstations. Recipients installing workstations also continue to develop and implement training programs and educational courses, including much-needed job training. During the quarter, public computer centers provided 1.4 million hours of training to 371,000 users.

Through June 2012, 34 BTOP recipients reported that more than 380,000 households and 8,000 businesses subscribed to broadband services after receiving digital literacy or job training. New subscribers for the past quarter totaled nearly 55,000, meaning that more Americans are now using the Internet to search and apply for jobs, advance their educational goals, and find health-related information. Nearly 79 percent of SBA grant recipients reported new broadband subscribers. NTIA expects the number of new subscribers to continue to increase as more households complete training programs, receive subsidized computer equipment or broadband service, and take advantage of workstations and discounted subscriptions provided by BTOP funds. BTOP recipients exceeded NTIA’s FY12 goal of 350,000 planned new broadband subscribers.

During the third quarter of FY12, BTOP recipients spent more than $420 million in Federal grant funds. These funds were matched by recipient contributions of nearly $125 million. Cumulatively, Federal outlays for the Program totaled $2.1 billion, while total recipient matching contributions exceeded $820 million.

One of the first concerns about the T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger raised by outsiders was the fact that today the two companies use a different type of network technology.

T-Mobile’s network has evolved from the type of system used by AT&T while MetroPCS has historically relied on a CDMA network similar to those used by Verizon and Sprint. That has some analysts and investors worried that the combined company could face the kind of hurdles that Sprint saw in the wake of its Nextel deal — a combination that, years later, still forces the company to operate two incompatible networks. But T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray says the key is that both companies have been moving toward a similar next-generation LTE network. Indeed, Ray says the combined spectrum will allow the company to offer a much stronger network in key cities than the two carriers ever could have done solo.

Facebook said a $15 billion lawsuit accusing the company of secretly tracking the Internet activity of its users after they log off should be dismissed because the subscribers didn’t specify how they were harmed.

The complaint suffers from an “utter lack of allegations of any injury to these particular named plaintiffs,” Matthew Brown, a lawyer for Facebook, told U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California. The plaintiffs haven’t identified what websites they visited, what kind of data or information was collected, or whether Facebook used it or disclosed it to anyone else, Brown said. “They have not done anything close to that.” The lawsuit consolidates similar complaints filed on behalf of U.S. residents who subscribed to Menlo Park, California-based Facebook from May 2010 to September 2011 in 10 different states, including California, Texas and Alabama.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration sent a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names to acknowledge the positive steps ICANN has taken with the introduction of new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs). But NTIA head Lawrence Strickling also raised newly-surfaced concerns raised by industry stakeholders.