Boston seeks broadband stimulus

Boston is seeking $15 million in funding from the US government for three broadband stimulus proposals it says are meant to bridge the digital divide, reports Broadcasting and Cable.

The city says it will put up $4.2 million of its own money as well for the three programmes, namely a Boston broadband network, a public computing centre and a sustainable adoption programme.

Chief information officer Bill Oates, says: "Now, we're ready to aggressively pursue a platform to serve the lowest income areas of Boston with Internet connections, increasingly necessary in this digital economy.”

Peru will work together with Brazil to promote the adoption in Latin America of Japan's technological specifications for terrestrial digital TV broadcasting, states TMCnet.

In April Peru decided to adopt the Japanese specifications for its terrestrial digital TV broadcasting, becoming the second country outside Japan, after Brazil, to do so.

Peru plans to begin terrestrial digital TV broadcasting on a trial basis in March next year to pave the way for launching full-scale services in 2015.

Independent station owner LIN TV has rolled out a mobile video application that provides news, entertainment, weather forecasts and traffic reports to BlackBerry smartphone users, says Broadcast Engineering.

LIN TV is using News Over Wireless's technology to develop custom BlackBerry smartphone applications for each of its 27 television stations.

News Over Wireless is part of CBC New Media Group, a division of Capitol Broadcasting Company and provides advertising-supported mobile Web sites, video channels and iPhone applications.