New York City and State Each Craft Broadband Policies

New York City should not create a comprehensive municipal wireless network, but should instead take targeted actions to increase the public availability of high-speed Internet service and encourage broadband adoption, city officials said last week. Among those actions include finding ways to get private providers to push fiber-optic wires into more parts of the city, including many industry parks that are currently unserved, officials and a consultant said at City Hall on July 30. The likely rejection of a municipal wireless network comes at a time when other major cities that had dallied with the concept - including Philadelphia and San Francisco - are having second thoughts about the advisability of city-wide public Wi-Fi. Instead of seeing wireless as the key driver to bridging the digital divide, the current hot topic in universal broadband is now fiber optics, judging by the New York City report.