As broadband stimulus funds flow into public/private partnerships, they are sure to reveal cracks that still exist in our understanding of how to balance public and private interests in telecom successfully.

Tonight the city council in Provo, Utah will discuss whether to grant a request to reduce monthly payment obligations from Broadweave Networks, which acquired the city’s struggling fiber-to-the-home network last year.

Broadweave argued it could turn the fiber operations around by replacing its open, wholesale-only model with one in which it played both the role of service provider and network operator. It’s not clear yet that the strategy will be successful. Now Broadweave wants to merge with one of the service providers on the network, Veracity Communications, using the temporary break in payments to the city — $1.5 million over two years – to get the combined operation up to speed. And that plea for financial help is raising concerns. more

Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) is hoping to add to its WiMax build plan this year with the help of some federal dollars. It revealed today it has applied for a “modest” but undisclosed amount of broadband stimulus fundsto deploy 4G networks in under-served areas in Detroit and Puerto Rico, two markets that currently are not part of Clearwire’s business plan. In addition, Clearwire is affiliating itself with a few other grant applications, agreeing to share spectrum or network assets in five states if the unnamed broadband providers secure funding. more

The M2M partnerships keep rolling in. After a summer that saw AT&T (NYSE:T) partner with Jasper Wireless and Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) form a joint venture to target the mobile telematics market, Sprint (NYSE:S) kicked off by announcing a multi-year partnership with M2M DataSmart, a machine-to-machine service aggregator that specializes in tailoring airtime plans for start-ups with new and unique applications. more