Engineering Requirements Could Stifle Quality, Quantity of Applications, Group Says
Engineering requirements could slow or exclude major broadband-stimulus projects, a group of potential applicants, consultants and a broadband trade association told the NTIA and the RUS in a letter sent Friday.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The signers, led by wireless providers, took issue with a provision in the notice of funds availability that would require applicants seeking more than $1 million in stimulus money to have their system designs and project timetables certified by a professional engineer. The engineer must be registered in the state where the project would take place. The requirements will “dramatically limit and the number and quality of applications submitted for funding,” the letter said. The signers of the letter, submitted by the Rini Coran communications law firm, included the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, Commnet Wireless and the WiNOG Grants Cooperative, a nonprofit group of rural wireless providers working together to apply for stimulus money.
A major complaint is that there are too few engineers who can sign off on projects using newer technologies, especially ones certified by the state. “Finding qualified people that even know what is going on is difficult, especially in an emerging industry like WiMax,” said Charles Wu, executive director of the Collective. “The technology hasn’t been around that long and certification for that engineering degree hasn’t really caught up yet.”
The engineering requirement may even work against the safety and functionality that the provision is trying to promote, Wu said. While scrambling for state-registered engineers to sign off on wireless projects, Wu found one civil engineer who said he didn’t know much about the technology but he would sign off if his friend, who worked for a TV broadcaster, said the application looked all right.
With the Aug. 14 application deadline approaching, companies are under pressure to develop construction and business plans to apply for the first money round. The letter recomends that engineer certification be required only after an application is selected for funding, giving applicants more time to find reputable engineers. The group also said engineers shouldn’t be required to be state- registered, because “broadband engineering principles are governed by the laws of physics, not the laws of a particular state.”