by Nick Delgado

Guam - KUAM News today spoke with the author of the now-infamous blog post on StimulatingBroadband.com, Peter Pratt, which has drawn the ire of many in Guam's telecommunications industry. The article described how IT&E was approved for $8 million in federal funding, which GTA TeleGuam disputes, alleging Governor Felix Camacho's involvement with his brother working at IT&E.

According to Pratt, his site has built a reputation as the go-to site for information on the policies, progress and politics of the $7.2 billion federal program for stimulus funding for telecomm companies. Pratt today defended his report, saying that they do not have any relationships with GTA, and that they just got a hold of the company's press release regarding the federal dollars over the Internet from BusinessWire.

Pratt told KUAM News, "I have never spoken to anyone at that firm prior to my call into the number of that press release that came out Tuesday of last week...I don't have no business contractual or other relation with GTA, their owners or any of their principals." Qualifying his role, he said, "I publish one of the two new sites in the country that specializes on President Obamas stimulus program. I read every press release, every bit of news in this area and I was alerted to GTA's press release when it was released Tuesday of last week."

He added, "Clearly, IT&E has a major application in for Round 2, and the appeal process from incumbents in the field, that process just opened up last week. So that's probably the opportunity for GTA and the and the other incumbent carriers on Guam that are neither IT&E or GTA that can appeal the second round application...for approximately $89 million by IT&E."

His bio states that Pratt is a 30-year veteran of the telecomm industry. He is the Principal of PrattNetworks, LLC, an advisory firm focused on the telecomm sector.