Government Information Technology

WASHINGTON, DC -- (Marketwire) -- 06/09/09 -- A June 4th National Broadband Stimulus Town Hall Meeting Webcast produced by the National League of Cities TV, (www.NLCTV.org), in cooperation with TV Worldwide and BroadbandCensus.com, attracted an on-line audience of thousands of city officials and industry professionals as experts engaged in interactive discussions on how broadband stimulus money will be deployed.

Sponsored by K&L Gates and Broadband Associates, the event led off with a provocative presentation from Jim Kohlenberger, Chief of Staff of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who set the tone for an informative agenda featuring incisive commentary from experts on a variety of broadband stimulus topics. Governmental entities and industry are preparing for the upcoming Notice of Funds Availability (NoFA) from U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS). The next webcast in the series on July 9 will be a workshop that will help participants understand and apply the NoFA guidance to their grant proposals.

"The President understands the vital role that technology and communications infrastructure play in this long-term future and our short-term economic recovery, which is why he made it a key component of his economic stimulus program," stated Kohlenberger.

"We really are on this precipice of exciting new technology-driven transformations and harnessing the full power and potential of broadband that really can improve the lives of all Americans in immeasurable ways," Kohlenberger continued. "Since World War II, half of economic growth has come from innovation. And in the late 90s, when we similarly pushed an Internet strategy and tech agenda, we saw two-thirds of economic growth come from Information Technology investment. And when we do create jobs in the IT world, they're jobs that pay on average 85% more than other private sector jobs." Kohlenberger asked participants to create new partnerships and ideas for broadband applications and commented, "We have a great deal of work ahead of us and I'm glad you're participating in this Town Hall today to help get these ideas going."

"We're pleased to see such huge on-line participation for this event, as we have with our other stimulus webcasts on NLC TV," commented Dave Gardy, Chairman and CEO of TV Worldwide, which produces NLC TV in cooperation with the National League of Cities. "This broadband-focused webcast was accessed by senior level city officials nationally and on the commercial side, 20% of the participants were C level executives. Many were still signing up as the webcast ended, in anticipation of the archive, which is now available. Now that this is viral, for the July 9 event we project doubling or tripling the traffic, especially after the guidance comes out."

Webcast co-host Marty Stern, of K&L Gates, remarked, "In listening to our panelists, I was struck by the diversity of projects in terms of size, focus, and geographic reach. We heard about projects that will bring broadband to the Navajo people in New Mexico using innovative wireless solutions, satellite broadband that will serve some of the most rural areas in the country, and a service platform that will be bring an array of healthcare, video, and informational service to the elderly and disabled using the power of broadband. The challenge for all these projects, which we'll cover in our next session, is how to tee them up in grant proposals that maximize the chance for success."

Drew Clark, Executive Director of Broadband Census.com, said, "The federal government's broadband stimulus program represents a unique confluence of technology, politics and telecommunications. Broadband is clearly the infrastructure of the future for our economy and our society. The choices that the NTIA, the RUS and the Federal Communications Commission make over the coming months could impact the way we communicate for generations."

The June 4th NLC TV Broadband Stimulus Town Meeting Webcast is now available for viewing at http://www.nlctv.org/events/broadbandstimulus_thm/090604/. Viewers should have the Windows Media 10 or above player installed to properly view the webcast.

The webcast agenda is as follows:

Hosts:
Drew Clark, Executive Director, BroadbandCensus.com
Marty Stern, Partner, K&L Gates

Introductory Remarks
Jim Kohlenberger, Chief of Staff, White House Office of Science
 and Technology Policy

The Broadband Stimulus and Tribal Initiatives
Deswood Tome, Executive Director
Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Authority

Scoring Grants -- This addresses the latest thinking on how projects will be evaluated. What we know and what we've learned from other grant programs that can be applied to the Broadband Stimulus:

--  Lisa Scalpone, Vice President of Legal and Government Affairs,
    WildBlue
--  Rich Wonders, VP Strategic Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent
--  Scott Wallsten, Vice President, Research, Technology Policy Institute
--  Joanne Hovis, Columbia Telecommunications Corporation
    

Show me the Money -- What sources of private financing are available to help capitalize broadband stimulus projects

--  John Badal, CEO, Sacred Wind Communications
--  James Owen, Director, Bank Street Group
--  Tim Nulty, Chairman, ECFiberNet, the East Central Vermont Community
    Fiber-Optic Network
    

Public Private Partnerships -- What are they expected to look like and how important will they be to a successful grant application (invited panelists):

--  Jim Baller, Baller Law Group
--  John Goodman, President and CEO, A-Vu Media
--  Jonathan Banks, Senior Vice President, Law and Policy, US Telecom
--  Dan Gillison, National Director, State and Local, and Public Safety
    Sales, Sprint Nextel Corporation
    

About TV Worldwide

Founded in 1999, TV Worldwide (www.tvworldwide.com) developed the first Internet TV network of community-based Internet TV channels, primarily targeting niche professional communities ranging from the Maritime industry to the Digital Media sector. Known by many in the industry as "Internet TV for Smart People", Fortune 500 companies, 18 federal government agencies, and numerous International associations including the National Association of Broadcasters, utilize TV Worldwide's live and archived state-of-the art video streaming content applications and Internet TV channels. In recognition of the company's unique achievements in new media, TV Worldwide was selected by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) to webcast the Daytime Emmy Awards and the Emmy awards for Technology and Engineering 2007 through 2009. CEO Dave Gardy has been honored by Streaming Media Magazine in 2008 as one of the 25 Most Influential People in Streaming Media. Mr. Gardy also currently serves as the President of the International Webcasting Association (IWA) (www.webcasters.org).

About National League of Cities TV

NLCTV, (www.NLCTV.org), the National League of Cities' internet-based TV channel with programming for and about cities and towns, provides live and taped web cast coverage of NLC conferences and other events important to cities including video content on successful programs, lessons learned, and best practices.

About BroadbandCensus.com

BroadbandCensus.com is a premium provider of news, information and events about broadband technology and internet policy. BroadbandCensus.com is at the forefront of understanding and explaining the implementation of the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus package on the federal, state and local level. Since January 2008, BroadbandCensus.com has been building a public, transparent and freely accessible database about local broadband speeds, prices, availability, reliability and competition.

About K&L Gates LLP

K&L Gates LLP comprises 1,800 lawyers who practice in 33 offices located on three continents: Anchorage, Austin, Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Dubai, Fort Worth, Frankfurt, Harrisburg, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, Spokane/Coeur d'Alene, Taipei and Washington. K&L Gates represents capital markets participants and leading global corporations, growth and middle-market companies, and entrepreneurs in every major industry group as well as public sector entities, educational institutions and philanthropic organizations. Our practice is robustly a full market practice -- at once regional, national and international in scope -- and it is cutting edge, complex, and dynamic.

About Broadband Associates

Broadband Associates was founded specifically to assist clients in creating "smart communities." "Smart communities" are those that have elevated their ability to grow creatively, socially, and economically, through the effective deployment and development of networks; social networks, transportation networks, communication networks.

At Broadband Associates, we are communications network experts.

We supply and manage secure, reliable, and future-proof fiber-optic communications solutions for select government entities and educational institutions. We were founded by a team of highly experienced education professionals and telecom experts from AT&T Broadband. Our mission is to be the provider of choice, for a full range of custom tailored, private fiber-optic network services to government and education. Our goal is to help our clients focus on running their organization, instead of on running their network.

Unlike large common carriers, we're focused totally on our clients. We are organized to deliver maximum efficiency and value, and we continuously negotiate to bring additional partners and resources into the network. We also have a Service Provider ID Number (SPIN), so our solutions can be eligible for E-Rate support funding from the federal government.

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