Last summer, Wendy Huntoon, director of advanced networking at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, asked the government for about $100 million.

The Obama administration was offering $7.2 billion for projects designed to expand access to broadband Internet service -- a pool of money that was proportionate to Ms. Huntoon's lofty goal of connecting much of midland Pennsylvania.

There was only one problem: Ms. Huntoon was on vacation in Maine and her Internet connection there wasn't strong -- and it got worse when it was rainy or foggy. Trees got in the way, too.

The irony wasn't lost on Ms. Huntoon, who finished her portion of the team application anyway and in February secured $99.6 million in federal stimulus funds to complete the Pennsylvania Research and Education Network project, designed to help build a broadband network through the state's most rural areas.

Ms. Huntoon, a local leader on the statewide initiative, offers a glimpse into the anonymous process that soon will outfit the commonwealth with federally funded broadband access and shake up the provider industry.

The PennREN story started in 1986 when local initiatives to expand broadband were either sidetracked or dormant, but begins anew in 2010, as a presidential administration catches up with the research community by casting limited broadband access as a 21st-century form of disenfranchisement.

To PennREN, the Obama administration's funding was just another research grant, and it'd "be a waste not to ask for it," Ms. Huntoon said.

Connectivity has long been a top priority for Ms. Huntoon and her team, starting when the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center was founded by the National Science Foundation in 1986 as part of a joint effort run by Westinghouse Electric Co., Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, and the Internet was an archaic network only explored by researchers.

Research practice typically becomes a commercial application after about 10 years, Ms. Huntoon said.

Funding for regional expansion was cut back in the mid-1990s, and high-speed connectivity was concentrated at major universities on either side of the state, while lower-grade access in midland Pennsylvania for places such as community colleges or hospitals was offered through only a commercial provider.

So-called midland Pennsylvania is a central region that stretches from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia but doesn't hit the New York or Maryland borders.

The mountainous terrain and sparse population give little incentive to commercial providers looking to expand, and any possible funding for the Supercomputing Center was too small-scale.

"We just never got traction," said Ms. Huntoon.

The Supercomputing Center and the connectivity community started talking in December 2008 about new stimulus funding that would cite access to high-speed broadband as a crucial leg of economic recovery.

President Barack Obama signed the Recovery Act into law in February 2009. Two programs -- the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) and the Broadband Initiative Program -- were allocated a combined $7.2 billion for broadband expansion to underserved communities.

More than 12 partners eventually joined the proposal, including Carnegie Mellon, the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh.

The PennREN program applied as part of the first round of BTOP funding, facing local competition that pitched programs as varied as sexual predator-tracking networks, traveling laptop stations run by the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh and hip-hop radio stations based in Pittsburgh housing projects.

The nationwide response was overwhelming, with almost 2,200 requests seeking some $28 billion in aid -- almost four times the amount available.

The PennREN team proposed a broadband network headquartered at 13 anchor facilities and about 50 satellite sites, which would together provide a radius of connectivity through 39 Pennsylvania counties.

Even with 1,700 miles of fiber, the project won't boot up the entire state, leaving northern and southern portions to other stimulus projects or later development.

If you connect the dots of the anchor institutions or "nodes," a crooked bow-tie shape forms. At one point, the "Bow Tie Network" name was proposed but scrapped.

Think of each node as having a radius of connectivity to local institutions, schools and businesses. The radius can extend even further if contractors wish to extend the network that "last mile," to the residential home or individual business.

After the proposal was submitted, due diligence questions started coming in and the PennREN team was encouraged by the specificity.

Meanwhile, some broadband providers already in the midland area had submitted statements calling the proposed PennREN infrastructure redundant to what they already had in place.

Windstream Communications filed public notice submissions to the PennREN application and hundreds of other stimulus applicants seeking broadband expansion in areas where Windstream service was offered, said Frank Schueneman, the company's vice president of regulatory policy.

The company said its current offerings in midland Pennsylvania called into question the region's status as an "underserved" area.

"We have strong evidence to believe that we already serve that area," he said. "We filed in hopes of enabling them to make a good decision about where they're funding projects."

The PennREN team found out with two days' notice about a Feb. 18 news conference at CMU. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke would be in town to announce winners.

Interest was immediately overwhelming -- "they wanted it tomorrow," Ms. Huntoon said. The team will match $29 million to complete the project.

Here's how the PennREN fiber network can eventually create faster connections for nearby homes or businesses. If you're trying to access a website with servers in California, right now you have to wait until the connection carries your request from midland Pennsylvania to a high-speed hub in Pittsburgh. From there, the request goes to California.

The PennREN network would speed up the first leg of that trip.

Future contracts that expand connectivity off its network could pay dividends on the federal investment.

Now that the PennREN project is under way, Mr. Schueneman said it was too early to tell if Windstream would alter its prices or seek a partnership with the project, like some other carriers plan to do.

Private sector contractors could expand the connection to an expected 2 million homes and 200,000 businesses.

Sting Communications, a middle-mile connectivity company that also initially deemed the project "redundant" to its midland coverage, now views the PennREN project as another network resource, said Randy Eckels, chief operating officer.

The company already has been in talks to use the PennREN fiber network to deliver broadband to customers in the business marketplace.

That echoes what Ms. Huntoon said of the project, which is designed "not to replace, but stimulate" existing providers.

At the CMU news conference, Gov. Ed Rendell estimated the $130 million in total stimulus funding for Pennsylvania could generate 1,000 new jobs over the next two years.

Ms. Huntoon also said the higher speeds could allow teleconferencing between regional hospitals and urban hubs, allowing for fewer patient transfers.

One example, she said, is how burn victims are treated at rural facilities. Now, a team of doctors has to transfer a patient to a major hospital just to diagnose the degree of the burn.

A server that handles teleconferencing could allow over-the-screen diagnosis.

The team will start building out from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and State College, allowing access to the connection as it's built, rather than wait to flip one big switch on the last day of construction. In many places, that will mean being able to watch movies online for the first time.

The heavy workload -- and tightening deadlines -- led the team to establish the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER to this acronym-fueled world). It's a nonprofit that will oversee the PennREN project.

As the Obama administration hedges its bets on the success of these federally funded projects, it imposes strict regulations and check-ins for the team.

A network of 40 gigabits per second has to be up and running by January 2012.

Before then, the project has to hire a KINBER executive director, administrators and engineers. Then the team has to secure contracts with fiber providers, equipment manufacturers and teams dispatched to deploy and manage the connections.

"To some extent, writing the proposal was the easy part," Ms. Huntoon said.

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