It may just be rhetoric, but New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer says he wants to be a champion for the Internet.
While New York has a vast transportation infrastructure to move people
and goods, we don’t have the broadband infrastructure to move ideas and
information. If you’re a kid growing up in South Korea, your Internet
access is ten times faster at half the price than a kid growing up in
the South Bronx. New Yorkers are at a competitive disadvantage that is
simply unacceptable.
Later on in the same speech, he compared those who don’t want New York to invest in broadband to those who did not want Gov. DeWitt Clinton to build the Erie Canal.
He sounds serious, and it would not be difficult for New York to corral the needed infrastructure. Chances are, most of it can be done with dark fiber already in the ground. If necessary, a trunk could be lain right alongside that old Erie Canal (nice symbolism), then down the New York Thruway.
The big problem, of course, would be the last mile, but with a Governor
demanding it, how long could Verizon really refuse? Especially since it
would be very inexpensive to coat New York City with WiFi and WiMax.
And if New York can have universal fast broadband, what about the rest of the country?
This could get very interesting very quickly.
Well, there’s a difference between the State Attorney General championing something and the Governor demanding it. As for how Verizon could back out, it would be the same way they did when this happened in PA in 2000. I like Spitzer, but I wonder if he will keep his pro-consumer ideals when faced with the challenge of gathering money to run for a higher office. When their pocket books are open and you need another $10 Million for your warchest, suddenly those giant corporations don’t look so evil.
Well, there’s a difference between the State Attorney General championing something and the Governor demanding it. As for how Verizon could back out, it would be the same way they did when this happened in PA in 2000. I like Spitzer, but I wonder if he will keep his pro-consumer ideals when faced with the challenge of gathering money to run for a higher office. When their pocket books are open and you need another $10 Million for your warchest, suddenly those giant corporations don’t look so evil.