A 1000 points of disconnected light

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Researching yesterday led me to the NY state 2010 Annual Broadband Report. We were given about $160,000,000 as a state from the federal government in the form of grants and loans and the report lists communities that received awards along with their slated projects.

I can’t help wondering if this is the most efficient and effective use of funds? What I see in the report are pockets of rural NY connected, while many others remain disconnected. Could not have the collective, the state, created and implemented something more comprehensive with that money? Something, given the technology we have, that spans more rural miles and serves more people?

I know that the argument against my points may go to the federal government and the way it circumscribed the dispersal of money.

In the end, that will not matter. Because when future generations are paying back all the debt we owe to the world through either high taxes or a lower standard of living than what we have today, they will not care. What they will probably ask is what I am pondering now: what were (are) we thinking?

Spending millions and billions to create jobs to expand rural broadband in what seem to me random spots, when collectively we just might have the technology and brain power to create one internationally competitive plan that really connects the nation.

Below is the site you can connect to see the amounts of money slated/spent for various broadband initiatives mentioned in the 2010 New York State Broadband Annual Report  report.  I have copied some examples below the link.They appear random to me without a vision for the state as a whole.Also, the amounts of money are large, I keep thinking about what I found out in my earlier post:

 Time Warner spending $1.1 million to wire 50 miles in Maine with fiber optic cable.  Wow, I just did the math, if $160 million could buy 8000 mile of fiber optic connection, using the Maine data, we might all have broadband access.   I am going to ponder this and write more about it:

Samples from the Broadband Annual Report of funds, locations, and broadband projects.  The total in 2010 from the federal government is about $160 million dollars.http://cio.ny.gov/assets/documents/BroadbandAnnualReport5.11.11.pdf

St. Regis Mohawk Tribe received $641,750 to upgrade public computer centers and add training and certification courses to the services it provides to economically vulnerable residents in Franklin County, New York, which is along the Canadian border.  The project

In addition, Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe received a $10,562,517 award that will allow SaintRegis Mohawk Tribe to offer a last-mile fiber-optic network to their community, in an isolated rural area in north central New York.  This project will link approximately 68 miles of fiber network to other broadband networks funded by the Recovery Act. Approximately 3,750

New York State – Mapping, Planning, State Broadband Capacity Planning, Libraries received an $8,875,431 federal stimulus grant for its broadband mapping activities.  The state’s 
Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure received the award.  The state is using this

Slic Network Solutions, Inc. received $4,262,642 million to build 136 miles of fiber optic cable and purchase equipment and electronics to deliver advanced broadband services to 726
unserved households in remote western Franklin County.

Port Byron Telephone Co, Inc. received $639,218 grant with an additional $200,000 of outside capital to bring high-speed DSL broadband service to unserved establishments within its rural
service territory.  This project will benefit about 400 people, as well as several business and other community institutions.

Deposit Telephone Company, Inc. received a $3,143,839 grant with an extra $1,000,000 of outside capital to bring high-speed DSL broadband service to unserved establishments in
New York and Pennsylvania.  This project will benefit 2,700 people and over 70 businesses, which will drive the economic development and create jobs for years to come.
Slic Network Solutions, Inc. received $27,832,767 to construct 660 miles of fiber optic cable in St. Lawrence County, New York. More than 14,000 people, approximately 112 local business
and 30 community institutions will benefit from this improved service.

Clarity Connect, Inc. – in the Town of Dryden was awarded $430,369. 

signing off for now, from a place on  peninsula with high-speed broadband

©claireaperez

Claire Perez   blogging on rural broadband access with increasing frustration as I look at the numbers!

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