Rural Mobile Broadband Alliance Hits 100-Member Mark - RuMBA Launches Membership Drive to Add Hundreds of Telcos

The Hills, TX, April 16, 2009 --(PR.com)-- The Rural Mobile Broadband Alliance (RuMBA USA), today announced that it has secured more than 100 members, comprising rural telcos, mobile broadband equipment makers, rural residents and broadband suppliers, in the effort to bring the best possible array of mobile broadband solutions to rural America. RuMBA was founded nearly two months ago, soon after the adoption of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

RuMBA’s Managing Director, Luisa Handem, said that the alliance is now in a good position to add hundreds of rural telcos, small disadvantaged businesses, Indian Nations and non-profits willing to join the alliance. “Our growth has been unprecedented. We are one of the largest, and most diverse, rural mobile broadband groups of interested parties, in the US, seeking federal grants and loans for broadband.” The Recovery Act has tasked Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS), to disburse funds for broadband expansion in the next two years. Handem says RuMBA can help.

“Within a short period of time, our members, from almost every state in the nation, have come together to conduct partnerships, file joint loans and grants applications for mobile broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas”, said Handem. “Our goal is to make the stimulus funds applications more efficient and transparent, allowing for the best proposals and the best technologies to be matched to the most needed areas of the rural landscape.”

Included in the more than 100 RuMBA members are founding members and sponsors Weather Decision Technologies (WDT) and Versar as well as leading technology companies and organizations, such as: Advanced TechSolutions; Alphastar; AlphiMAX; Arivaca.com; Broadhead + Company; CCMI; Disabled Vet HUBZone; Expand Networks; INOSS, inPro Solutions; Powder River Development Services; SDBV PLC, Strategic Technology Institute (STI) and Tropos Networks.

Last month, RuMBA circulated “The American Broadband Bill of Rights” demanding equal access to broadband for all Americans regardless of their location. Broadband networks and services, the Alliance stated, must be ubiquitous, mobile, affordable, sustainable and provide emergency alerts.

RuMBA has outlined that the Recovery Act provides an unprecedented opportunity to build America’s first Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) Grid across the US, offering rural communities the potential to “leapfrog” urban networks.

About RuMBA USA
The Rural Mobile Broadband Alliance (RuMBA) USA was launched to assist rural community residents, carriers and equipment makers in raising awareness of the benefits of rural mobile broadband, and to encourage the most responsible use of stimulus package funds, thus maximizing the positive impact of broadband on the lives of ordinary Americans. RuMBA USA is a 501 (C) (3) non-profit organization in the state of Texas. Visit rumbausa.com for more information and to join the Alliance.

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