New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has detailed a new program which is going to reinvigorate broadband in the state. He has mentioned this initiative previously but now the governor has come out with more details. The idea is to improve speed and access throughout the state and for that purpose the program offers $500 million in public funds that ISPs can access, but in order to do that they must match the state’s dollar for dollar, bumping up the total cost of this initiative to $1 billion.
With this initiative the governor wants to provide ISPs with an incentive to improve their networks and offer greater speeds. Cuomo says that they must provide speeds of at least 100 Mbps and that funding priority will be decided upon who delivers the highest speeds at the lowest cost.
The 100 Mbps speed isn’t a prerequisite for all locations. In the most “remote unserved and underserved areas of the state” ISPs only have to provide speeds of at least 25 Mbps, but they must have infrastructure installed which can eventually be scaled up to 100 Mbps.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has thrown his weight behind this $1 billion initiative but until it gets approval from the state legislature its not going anywhere. He points out that “We’re launching the largest state broadband investment in the nation,” and that its likely to improve the lives of the citizens of this state.
Filed in . Read more about Broadband and New York. Source: governor.ny.gov