Qwest apparently isn't interested in obtaining stimulus funds after saying a few months back that they could deliver 7Mbps DSL to 95% of their footprint with a cool $1 billion in taxpayer dollars. Apparently the carrier, which has a bit of a history of skimping on next-generation upgrades, then trying to cripple the efforts of towns and cities when they want to deploy faster alternatives, doesn't like the rules affixed to the funds.

Why? The rules focus on providing service to the most under-served first, something that -- even with a billion dollar head start -- doesn't provide the kind of ROI that pleases hungry investors. Qwest may apply for later rounds of funding, if the rules allow them to use the money on more profitable ventures.

Of course that runs contrary to the entire point of the broadband investment package, which is to get some financial help to the more rural communities companies like Qwest have left disconnected in order to please investors.

Qwest barely provides speeds faster than 1.5Mbps to suburban markets, and while they recently announced VDSL upgrades, Qwest lacks the resources (most notably a wireless division and cash cow SMS revenues) to deploy the service to more than the most profitable of customers. If you're not seeing the irony of them refusing taxpayer dollars to help aid this process, you probably should.

Lobbying organizations like U.S. Telecom, of which Qwest is a member, have worked hard to strip the funding of all rules. As such, you can expect other incumbents to stick up their noses in "protest" at this first round of funding. Whether Uncle Sam folds or opposes this pressure should give you a solid indication of how the final national broadband policy plan turns out.