New York State Council for Universal Broadband Seeks to Maximize Federal Stimulus Funding

ALBANY, NY (06/10/2009)(readMedia)-- The New York State Council for Universal Broadband held its quarterly meeting on June 9, 2009 with council members focusing on efforts to maximize funds available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to build next-generation broadband networks, support affordable internet connections, and develop digital literacy training programs for low-income households to increase household adoption rates.

Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, New York State Chief Information Officer, Director of the Office for Technology and the Chair of the Council for Universal Broadband opened the meeting by discussing steps to achieve universal access to high-speed broadband internet coverage in all corners of the state as outlined in Governor David A. Paterson's Bold Steps to the New Economy: A Jobs Plan for the People of New York State.

Governor Paterson's plan highlights Executive Order 22 - the creation of a Broadband Development and Deployment Council that will articulate and execute a broadband policy for the State and guide the State as it invests funds received through the ARRA.

"New York State recognizes the importance of ubiquitous deployment of broadband to ensure the health and welfare of both New York's citizens and economy by stimulating economic development, increasing learning opportunities and connecting all New Yorkers to the wide array of resources available online, including government services," said Governor David A. Paterson. "The establishment of the Broadband Development and Deployment Council will help ensure that all New Yorkers become equal and full participants in the information age and information economy."

Dr. Mayberry-Stewart further discussed the recently enhanced NYS Universal Broadband Strategy, published by the NYS Council for Universal Broadband, which lays the groundwork for the further development and deployment of broadband around the state. New York's strategy focuses on innovative solutions for providing high-speed, affordable broadband access to all New Yorkers. It is a comprehensive approach that balances infrastructure build out, digital literacy, economic and workforce development, and expansion of online government services for citizens businesses and visitors.

The strategy also positions New York's priorities to receive funding from the ARRA to build the next-generation of broadband networks and develop programs to increase broadband adoption rates.

"Leading countries and states are implementing strategies to establish digital literacy standards and ensure universal broadband internet services are accessible and affordable for citizens and businesses," said Dr. Mayberry-Stewart. "Our strategy requires creating more "e-citizens" who are digitally literate and connected to affordable Internet access, so they can be full participants of the Information age. The Council for Universal Broadband looks forward to taking the next steps to achieve Governor Paterson's goal of providing affordable universal broadband access for all New Yorkers."

At the quarterly meeting, council members heard a presentation from Carmen Branca, Jr., President of New Visions PLC, Inc. - a New York State Round 1 broadband grant recipient. The presentation highlighted activities surrounding New Visions project to provide broadband services to residents in the Syracuse area by utilizing a technology which brings broadband to residents by tapping into power lines connected to the homes.

Mr. Branca described how the broadband grant will enable New Visions to pass 12,500 homes. "The broadband grant will allow New Visions to design and implement our service model to create affordable broadband Internet access for unserved and underserved rural communities. Broadband is the infrastructure of the 21st century. Improved broadband technologies will spur economic development, and connect more New Yorkers to affordable high-speed internet," said Mr. Branca.

In addition, Jeremy Miller, Esq., Industry and Technology Analysis Division of the FCC, discussed the FCC's role in the development of a National Broadband Plan related to the broadband provisions contained in the ARRA legislation. Mr. Miller described the data gathering methods to develop the national plan, and described the initiative as the single most comprehensive endeavor the FCC is responsible for under the ARRA legislation. As part of the New York State Universal Broadband Strategy, a broadband mapping project was initiated to prepare a statewide map of existing wired broadband availability. This helps to understand where the unserved and underserved areas remain across the state.

The New York State Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Coordination (CSCIC) utilizes a geographic information systems program to predict the level of broadband availability across the State. "We are pleased to support Governor Paterson's initiative to bring the digital age to all our citizens," said William Pelgrin, CSCIC Director. "Accurate and comprehensive mapping of the existing broadband infrastructure is essential in prioritizing stimulus funding efforts."

During the quarterly Council meeting, Frank Winters, Manager of GIS and Critical Infrastructure at CSCIC provided an update on the validation phase of the statewide mapping initiative. He reported twenty-seven or 43% of the counties have completed their validation broadband availability maps. Next steps in the process will be revising the availability maps to reflect updates by county leaders, and further validation and refinement from service providers.

As outlined in Governor David A. Paterson's Bold Steps to the New Economy: A Jobs Plan for the People of New York, the NYS Council for Universal Broadband will continue leading the way to optimize state, federal and private assets to increase broadband availability to unserved and underserved New Yorkers, bridge the digital divide, and stimulate demand.

Pending implementation of Executive Order 22, the Broadband Council's next meeting will be in September 2009.To obtain a copy of the NYS Universal Broadband Strategy visit http://www.cio.ny.gov/assets/documents/Final_Broadband_Strategy_June2009.pdf. For information regarding New York State's Broadband stimulus activities, visit http://www.nysbroadband.ny.gov/

About CIO/OFTThe State Chief Information Officer and Office for Technology (CIO/OFT) provide statewide IT strategic direction, IT policy and centralized IT services to the state and its governmental entities. CIO/OFT provides IT enterprise services to support the missions of state agencies by operating four mainframe data centers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including more than 90,000 telecom users, 50 statewide mission-critical applications, a secure network of over 1,600 miles of fiber, including IT operations, telecommunications, Internet and Intranet services, enterprise email systems and support, IT training, networking, data storage and processing. In addition, the agency has a world renowned project management practice, develops and supports web applications and assists with application development. For more information, visit http://www.cio.ny.gov.

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