A New York State of Megabits

[Commentary] Here’s a parallel for you: When it comes to high-capacity Internet access, Cuba is to the US as the US is to Norway, Korea, and a bunch of other places in northern Europe and Asia. So it was great to get back to New York and be able to report on what is called the “New NY Broadband Program.” It involves a $500 million expenditure to help ensure that New Yorkers across the state have access to current-generation Internet capacity. There’s lots of potential in the plan, targeted at providing every New Yorker with access to 100 megabit per second (Mbps) service (10 Mbps uploads) by the end of 2018. Because New York expects a 1:1 match from the private sector for each grant or loan it makes, that means the state hopes to be deploying at least $1 billion on high-speed Internet access infrastructure.

On the other hand, if the plan is not nurtured by aggressive leadership and implemented with skill, it won’t change much at all in the State of New York, much less set the pace for the rest of the nation. Our top officials must find the courage to require competitive markets and make policy changes that open the way for new entrants. Otherwise the plan could end up allowing the existing players to dig in and hold on to their territories  --  leaving upstate New Yorkers not much better off than they are now, albeit with “access” to unreasonably priced higher-capacity connections. For a Cuban, US Internet access is miraculous; for someone from South Korea or Seoul, coming here feels like a rural vacation because life is so disconnected and slow. It’s time the Empire State raised our American expectations.

[Susan Crawford is co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University]