New York ramping up for broadband

Ramping city up for broadband

December 19, 2005

A political push to broaden the use of broadband - by making high-speed Internet lines cheaper and more accessible - should gain a bit of ground this week.

In one of its last acts under Speaker Gifford Miller, the City Council on Wednesday is expected to approve a bill creating a new 15-member "broadband advisory committee."

Sponsor Gale A. Brewer (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Council's technology committee, considers it a populist calling for government to prod or provide more equal Internet access. She's held a dozen hearings in the past two years and sees the new body as the next step. "The gap between those who can afford broadband and those who cannot persists," Brewer says in a report she co-authored with her top aide Bruce Lai, "despite growth in the availability of broadband connections."

Census data show that more than half the U.S. households with annual incomes above $100,000 have broadband while more than two thirds of those who earn less than $100,000 do not.

Philadelphia, Atlanta and San Francisco are carrying out plans for wireless broadband networks, note Brewer and Lai. Smaller cities such as Spokane, Wash. and Corpus Christi, Texas already created them.

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