Rural broadband study bill passes
Sen. Metzger said her bill passed by the Legislature will go a long way toward getting broadband to rural areas.
A Democratic Rosendale state senator said her bill passed by the Legislature will go a long way toward getting Internet connection to rural areas now without it.
But Sen. Jen Metzger’s GOP opponent said the bill simply authorizes yet another study and doesn’t get rural New Yorkers actual broadband capability.
The bill directs the Public Service Commission to “study the availability, affordability, and reliability of high-speed internet and broadband access in New York State and produce a detailed access map on its website that indicates internet service by location,” Metzger’s office said.
“The legislation also requires the PSC to hold a minimum of four regional public hearings across the State and submit a report on its findings to the Governor and legislature within one year to prioritize broadband access for communities that have experienced negative economic and social impacts due to absent or insufficient service,” a statement from Metzger’s office said.
Metzger, who represents the 42nd Senate District, said the bill earned bipartisan support, with a total of 32 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. The Senate vote was 59 to 1, according to Metzger’s office.
“Long before COVID-19, lack of access to high-speed internet had limited economic and educational opportunities in rural districts like mine,” Metzger said. “If we want to ensure equal opportunity in today’s world and chip away at the urbanrural and rich-poor gaps, then we need to make sure that every New Yorker has affordable access to broadband.”
“This legislation requires that the PSC examine internet speeds, costs, and other factors that together affect broadband access so that we can fully close the digital divide in New York State, and I urge the Governor to sign it into law as soon as possible,” Metzger said.
New studies by Microsoft and BroadbandNow indicate that broadband access data generated by internet service providers is not always collected accurately, and the “Federal Communications Commission’s method of collecting data at the census block level ends up missing many unserved households,” Metzger’s office said.
Metzger’s Republican opponent Mike Martucci said in a press release that the senator has not kept her promise.
“Senator Metzger is congratulating herself for passing yet another bill to study broadband access to underserved rural areas, claiming it as a victory, but the fact of the matter is that her rhetoric simply doesn’t match her actions,” Martucci said. “In reality, she’s delivered nothing. The last two bloated state budgets do not contain a single dime to expand broadband access, and in fact, in 2019 Senator Metzger and her liberal colleagues actually made it more expensive to install broadband by passing a tax on businesses that are trying to expand access.”
Martucci, who lives in Westtown, added that the “last two state budgets Senator Metzger voted for have included no funding for broadband services.”
“People in the 42nd Senate District and across the state don’t need another study to tell them they don’t have access to broadband services, they need action,” Martucci said.
In response, Metzger said: “We can’t blindly throw money at the problem and hope for the best that we fix it. The bill requires, for the first time, that the Public Service Commission map broadband access, speeds, and costs across New York and assess the technologies that will best ensure that every New Yorker has access to affordable, reliable broadband.”
Others think the Public Service Commission study will bear fruit.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has helped illustrate how the lack of high-speed internet access is holding back millions of New Yorkers all over our state,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “This is something that needs to be corrected and this bill is a step in the right direction.”