The nation's larger broadband companies didn't apply for broadband stimulus funds, largely because they don't want government scrutiny into their business practices, don't like the fact they had to use the funds just on under-served rural areas, and frankly, many don't need the cash. That said, there's plenty of smaller operations who do want to do business in rural America; in fact there's 2,200 of them according to the latest statement from the NTIA and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service. According to Uncle Sam, thousands of applicants from different sectors requested proposed $28 billion worth of projects (there's only $7.2 billion to go around):Meanwhile, we're privately hearing from a number of reviewers tasked with picking and choosing between the applicants. One tells us they're forced to sign this (pdf) conflict of interest and confidentiality form. From the form:Reviewers are kept anonymous, but a few insiders have agreed to risk life and limb to share with us the internal workings of how the approval process works over the coming weeks. We assume they're kept anonymous in order to keep lobbyists from plying them with shiny baubles, but time will tell just how well that concept works.