Broadband Properties magazine named CTC Technology & Energy to its annual Top 100 list, which honors companies that have made significant contributions to “building the fiber-connected community.” CTC joins Google as one of 12 new additions to the list.

The District of Columbia today became the first major city in the country to receive two Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grants. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the District will receive funding for the D.C. Community Access Network (DC-CAN) infrastructure initiative and an extensive public computer center project.

CTC Technology & Energy is proud to have been part of the District’s BTOP application team, and commends the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on recognizing the importance of broadband infrastructure and expanded access to public computers in urban areas.

More details on the two awards are available in the NTIA’s listing of grants awarded.

Crown Fibre Holdings, representing the Government of New Zealand, has selected CTC Technology & Energy to provide technical consulting on its national Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative.

Dr. Andrew Afflerbach, CTC Director of Engineering, will lead a team that develops a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) architecture for the UFB project and provides strategic guidance on a range of related technical issues.

New Zealand’s goal is to build open-access dark fiber to 75 percent of the country’s residents within 10 years. Current plans call for a NZ$1.5 billion public investment (more than US$1 billion) to be matched by private sector investments.

Speaking on a panel at the Building the Broadband Economy (BBE) 2010 conference in New York today, CTC president Joanne Hovis discussed how information and communications technology (ICT) is supporting educational achievement.

Ms. Hovis joined many other notable speakers at the event, which focused on “The Education Last Mile: Closing the Gap from School to Work.” The conference was presented by the Intelligent Community Forum in association with the Institute for Technology & Enterprise at NYU Polytechnic.

CTC Technology & Energy principal analyst Ron Holcomb presented today on “Smart Grid — The Killer Ap” at FiberFete, an event that brought together Internet and technology leaders from around the world to discuss “the development potential of fiber-powered communities.” (A video of Ron’s presentation is available here.)

Prior to joining CTC, Ron provided executive leadership to a municipal electric distribution and telecommunications utility where he oversaw the team that planned, deployed, and operated a fiber-to-the-home network to serve retail voice, video and data services.

CTC President Joanne Hovis has joined the Board of Directors of the Benton Foundation at the request of Charles Benton, the foundation’s chairman and CEO.

The Benton Foundation works to ensure that media and telecommunications serve the public interest and enhance our democracy. It pursues this mission by seeking policy solutions that support the values of access, diversity and equity, and by demonstrating the value of media and telecommunications for improving the quality of life for all.

CTC Technology & Energy and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) have launched a survey of broadband speeds and costs available to the nation’s small businesses. The market research is one part of a project the SBA awarded CTC to evaluate the impact of broadband speed and price on small businesses.

Working with the SBA Office of Advocacy, CTC will analyze the types of broadband technology used by small businesses, and “make policy recommendations that may improve small business’ access to comparable broadband services at comparable rates in all regions of the Nation.”

CTC Technology & Energy is proud to have been part of the teams that developed the successful Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant applications for OpenCape Corporation and Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband (UC2B). Both organizations received middle-mile infrastructure awards in the first round of broadband stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The OpenCape Corporation Middle Mile Project includes a 350-mile fiber-optic and microwave broadband network across Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It was awarded $32.1 million in federal grant funding.

UC2B, which will construct a 187-mile of fiber-optic network, joins the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, the cities of Champaign and Urbana, and other partners. It was awarded $22.5 million in federal grants.

More details on the two awards are available in the official announcements from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

CTC Technology & Energy president Joanne Hovis has been named to the global advisory board of FiberFete, an April 2010 event that “will bring Internet innovators from around the world to meet with local leaders for three days of discussion, learning and fun in Lafayette, Louisiana, a fiber-powered city in the heart of Cajun country.”

Ms. Hovis joins other notable global advisory board members including Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, and Susan Crawford, President Obama’s former broadband adviser. Other FiberFete speakers include Chris Vein, CIO of the City of San Francisco; Bill Schrier, CTO of the City of Seattle; and Lev Gonnick, CIO of Case Western Reserve University.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has selected CTC Technology & Energy to provide strategic advice and guidance to member stations on broadband and stimulus grant opportunities. CTC President Joanne Hovis will help participating stations understand the grant application process, and will provide targeted analysis of the stations’ business, sustainability, and technical plans to maximize their chances to secure federal funding for their projects.

CPB helps support the operations of more than 1,000 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television, and related on-line services.