5:55 PM -- Adtran Inc. (Nasdaq: ADTN) apparently has something up its sleeve in fiber-to-the-whatever (FTTW).

It got mentioned in a conference call today with media and analysts. Vice president of marketing Gary Bolton was listing some of the ongoing progress in broadband, such as the use of vectoring and bonding in VDSL, or the continued march of fiber broadband. "We have some new architectures Adtran will be announcing this fall," he then said.

So, watch for that.

The real point of the event was to update the media on how the Recovery Act is going. As we've mentioned, most of the money still hasn't been handed out, and the pool vanishes after Sept. 30, when the US government starts its new fiscal year. (See Recovery Act Funds Sit Still.)

Bolton's estimate is that another $4 billion in awards will come out of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Rural Utilities Service (RUS) before that deadline. So far, $5.1 billion has been allocated. (The figures include matching funds from grant/loan recipients, which is why they total more than the $7.2 billion allocated to the Recovery Act.)

Here's how Adtran sees the endgame unfolding:

Table 1: Recovery Act Finale

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading