NY Governor Cuomo Announces Broadband Initiative All New Yorkers Should Be Proud Of

I love calling myself a native New Yorker, but today, I’m even more proud to have that distinction. Yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a $1 billion plan to improve access to high-speed Internet across New York state. The state will utilize $500 million in “capital funds from bank settlements to incentivize the private sector to expand high-speed broadband access in underserved and unserved areas.” In the words of the governor’s office, “This represents the largest and boldest state investment in universal broadband deployment in the country.”

In order to get funding, broadband providers will have to match the state’s contribution one-to-one and provide speeds of at least 100 Mbps (unless it’s a remote, underserved area in which speeds must be at least 25 Mbps with the promise of getting to 100 Mbps). This is amazing!

Back in 2012 I penned an article titled, I’m In the 1% of Internet Users Within the U.S., in which I wrote:

We need to work towards having ISP’s provide some kind of standard “acceptable” broadband Internet connection. For arguments sake, let’s say the standard was set to 15Mbps download and 3Mbps upload. This standard would be the minimum speed that an ISP could offer to its customers. Not only is this a standard I’m fairly confident could be implemented by most ISP’s, especially those in urban/suburban areas, it’s a standard that would allow most people to continue to take full advantage of the growing number of web services being offered.

Bravo to Governor Cuomo for looking to push network infrastructure even further and getting people access to acceptable Internet speeds. According to the governor’s office, as of right now, “One million New Yorkers and 4,000 businesses cannot get access to broadband at the State’s previously established minimum speed standards (6 Mbps download and 1.5 Mbps upload) — speeds that are already too slow.”

Now we need to get more states to start broadband initiatives like this, especially with how vital the Internet is to our economy and every day lives.