[CWN-Summit] Rural Wireless Community VISION Program Essay Contest (fwd)

[Michael maranda]

http://wireless.fcc.gov/outreach/ruralvision/index.html


The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau's Rural Wireless
Community 
VISION Program was created to accelerate access to advanced
wireless telecommunications across rural America. Access to
e-commerce, e-government, telemedicine, and distance learning
translate into better jobs, more responsive government, improved
health care, greater educational opportunities, and a brighter
future for all Americans.
The VISION Program is part of the Federal partnership between
the 
United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities
Service (RUS) and the Federal Communications Commission's
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB). This unique alliance,
the Joint Federal Rural Outreach Initiative, was formed in 2003.
The VISION Program, the first in a proposed series, brings the
FCC-WTB's knowledge of regulatory and technical issues and the
USDA-RUS Telecommunications Program's expertise in financing
projects directly to America's heartland.
Rural communities will be chosen to participate in the VISION
Program on the basis of a two to five page VISION Essay which
describes the community's vision for wireless connectivity and
services and how the community will benefit from this vision. A
joint team of experts from the Federal Communications
Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the United
States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service will 
score the community's VISION Essay, as described in the Rural
Wireless Community VISION Program Essay Guidelines
<guidelines.html>.
Rural communities will receive on-site regulatory, legal,
engineering, and technical assistance from a team of Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau staff experts, working in cooperation
with the loan-grant officers and regional field representatives
of the Rural Utilities Service to help the community make the
project a success. The VISION Program will coordinate the
efforts of federal, state, and local governments and the private
sector to identify potential barriers and possible solutions in
order to help bring the benefit of wireless broadband services
to America's rural communities. 
Successful deployments will serve as models for other rural
communities seeking to develop their own sustainable and
cost-effective deployments of advanced wireless communications
systems. The lessons learned in these pilot Wireless
Community VISION projects will assist others to find their own
road to success.
The Rural Wireless Community VISION Program is open to any rural

community in the United States and its territories. Rural
communities are invited to submit an essay application for entry
into the VISION Program.

The deadline is December 1, 2004 at 11pm Eastern.