IP Democracy: Spitzer Builds Broadband Plank into Campaign

The Personal Democracy Forum held a conference earlier this week on How Technology is Changing Politics and keynote speaker Eliot Spitzer, New York Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate, took advantage of the event to spell out a new campaign plank: affordable broadband for all.

In his speech, Spitzer raised the usual statistics that the U.S. lags in broadband penetration and argued that a child in South Korea gets broadband service that is ten times faster than the service a child in the South Bronx receives.

That’s why today I am proposing that New York launch a comprehensive statewide broadband initiative to ensure universal access to affordable, high-speed broadband service for every New Yorker. We must make New York State the most connected and technologically advanced place to live and do business in the world. The problem isn’t a lack of resources, it’s a lack of imagination and a lack of leadership.

To solve the broadband problem, Spitzer proposed several initiatives. The first is “authorize any local municipality to adopt the broadband strategies necessary to make Internet access affordable and fast.” Secondly, he wants to use the state’s infrastructure to encourage deployment in rural areas — among the tasks he advocates is an evaluation and mapping of all taxpayer-owned fiber optic networks, as well as of all state-owned rights of way, throughout the state.

Third, he wants the state’s CIO to “lead a taskforce of private sector information technology leaders, local government representatives and academics to develop statewide broadband policies” to leverage the resources uncovered in the mapping. He also urges the federal government to step in and do more, particularly in the area of universal service funding.

Spitzer said that the Internet is the “dial-tone” of our era:

In 1934, the federal government passed the “Universal Service Act,” which guaranteed dial tone to every single residential address in the country, regardless of location. The Internet is the “dial tone” of our time and it is time we guarantee every citizen of New York State the right to access it and use it to advance themselves and advance the economy of this state. To that effect, we should urge the federal government to consider expanding the Universal Service Fund to include Internet service, which could provide a major federal funding source for making universal Internet access a reality.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on May 18, 2006 7:51 AM to IP Democracy