Telecom majors and United States cities are not the only ones applying for broadband federal stimulus funding in the broadband sector. 

It seems as if national public libraries, as a major source of Internet access, are seeking to accrue some of the funds allotted by applying for grants as well. 

A group of foundations, companies and trade and government agencies are combining thoughts to build support to bring fiber optic technology to the country’s 16,500 libraries. 

In pushing for these initiatives, major telecom organizations such as Google (News - Alert), the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, or “NATOA,” and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Congressman Rick Boucher, or “D-VA,” are supporting the initiative. 

Boucher, who is House Communications Subcommittee chairman, told FCC (News - Alert) chairman Julius Genachowski that a plan to equip public libraries should focus on delivering "extraordinarily high bandwidth" to libraries. 

Don Means, founder of the Fiber to the Library Project, has said improving Internet broadband access to public libraries "provides the biggest bang for the stimulus buck." 

“We see libraries as early adopters of technologies,” Means said. “A lot of people had their first experience with first-generation broadband at a library and we think libraries are demand drivers for emerging technologies.” 

For many Americans, public libraries are an only source of access for Internet, evidenced by the 2007 American Library Association report which started that nearly three-quarters of the nation's public libraries were the only source of free public access to the Web. 

Richard Whitt, Google's telecommunications and media counsel in Washington, said Google supports the effort to beef up robust Internet access at public libraries. 

“Upgrading public libraries will help transform those institutions into future technology hubs, local community nodes and the essential information centers for the 21st century,” Whitt said. 

The Gates Foundation recently filed a cost model and cost estimates for providing fiber optic connectivity to anchor institutions with an estimate that it may cost as much at $5 billion to $10 billion to complete deployment.

With broadband spending reportedly ahead of schedule, and with many projects coming under budget,  the hope that a nation’s past time can receive some funding to expand and offer more services to those who use libraries for their main technology needs, seems hopeful.