Investment In High-Speed Internet Vital For The Region Says Lopez

Assemblyman Pushes for Continued State and Federal Investment

March 22, 2013

As a long-time proponent of bringing high-speed Internet access to underserved communities, Assemblyman Pete Lopez (R,C,I – Schoharie) welcomed an announcement by Governor Cuomo that the state is investing $25 million in new funding to expand high-speed Internet access across the state. Among the projects receiving funding are many of the counties within the 102nd Assembly District.

“We have been working for a long time to respond to the need for improved high-speed Internet in rural communities. I am very pleased that our work is paying off. This brings much-needed investment for high-speed Internet to our state,” said Assemblyman Lopez, who has been working to bring high-speed Internet to every community in his seven-county district in order to help rural communities realize their full economic potential.

Projects within the 102nd Assembly District slated to receive portions of this $25 million appropriation include a project in Otsego County to provide wireless service to 24 towns, nine villages, and one city in the county ($558,940); and, the MARK Project, Inc. to bring telecommunication services to 900 residents, businesses and anchor institutions in the towns of Conesville, Gilboa, Halcott, Middletown and Roxbury ($1.8 million). Additionally, $5.2 million will be provided to Time Warner Cable to improve high-speed Internet services throughout the state.

The funding announced today supplements projects such as one Assemblyman Lopez helped advance in 2011 by partnering with local governments and companies, like ION’s Southern Tier East Fiber Backbone – 7 Community Network Project and MIDTEL NET, among other partners around the state. The project provided citizens with expanded and improved Internet access in a seven-county region starting in Tompkins County to Schoharie County. He continues to work toward creating an Internet “superhighway” throughout rural areas of the state, citing the federal government’s involvement in providing incentives and policy directives in the early 1900s to bring electricity to rural areas (through the Rural Electrification Act), as an example of where the federal and state government can help rural New York realize its full potential.

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