New York Goveronor Eliot Spitzer, in his State of the State address this week (pdf), said he’s going to try to make broadband available across the whole state of New York.
“Here in New York, we face a digital divide,” he said. “If you’re a child growing up in South Korea, your Internet is 10 times faster at half the price than if you’re a child growing up in the Southern Tier or in the South Bronx. New Yorkers on the wrong side of the divide simply cannot compete in today’s economy.”
“We’re going to take a look at where the dark zones are,” said Spitzer aide Drew Warshaw. Then on top of that map, they will put another one that locates state-owned and local-government-owned infrastructure.
He said the state will try to “leverage existing resources,” such as utility poles, rights of way and towers being built for a statewide emergency-response wireless network to try to strike deals with broadband providers to further extend their networks.
One group in need of better broadband access is small businesses in New York State, reports Business Week, particularly those in less populated areas.
Other State-wide Wireless Broadband Access Plans are being developed by Vermont and Rhode Island.
State-wide broadband plans could compliment the growth of municipal wireless across the United States. The latest is from Toledo, Ohio.
The city of Toledo could become the first major city in Ohio to have wireless Internet access citywide, reports the Toledo Blade.
EarthLink, which operates the wireless or “wi-fi” network in Philadelphia, AT&T, Buckeye CableSystem, and others are expected to bid for the citywide license.
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, who has boasted of Toledo’s 2005 designation by Intel as the fifth “most-unwired” city in the nation, said his administration has distributed a request for proposals (RFP) for providers who could make wireless Internet service available throughout the city’s 88 square miles. The RFP seeks bidders willing to make the expected $10 million investment in infrastructure in return for a license to be branded as “Wireless Toledo.”
Officials say the municipal wifi system won’t cost taxpayers any money, and is expected to provide free wireless service to city agencies, free wireless access in certain public buildings and outdoor areas; and discounted wireless service for low-income people. Price has yet to be determined but a $20/monthly rate is fairly standard.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco partnership with Google and EarthLink for free wireless Internet access is too important an initiative to be knocked off track by City Hall naysayers trying to score political points, said Mayor Gavin Newsom in yesterday’s SF Chronicle. Newsom is trying to gather political support on the Board of Supervisors, which is expected to vote on the deal next month.
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