2/9/08 - Internet access problem in rural areas

County Legislature forming committee to look at issue, study grants

Joe McIntyre/staff photographer
Karl Klein talks Friday about frustrations he has with a slow internet connection using a satellite at his home on North Tower Road in Solon. There is a lack of high-speed internet options in rural areas of Cortland County.

(As published by Cortland Standard, Christine Laubenstein reporting)

SUNY Cortland biology professor Terrence Fitzgerald would love to have high-speed Internet access at his Virgil home. Instead, he has to settle for a slower dial-up connection.

He’s considered satellite Internet, but it’s expensive and not necessarily as fast as a digital subscriber line, or DSL, connection, which is unavailable in his neighborhood.

“I pretty much have to come into my office to do the work I need to do,” the Lash Road resident said.

His plight and that of those living in Cortland County’s outlying areas in parts of Virgil, Truxton and Solon has caught the attention of county_ legislators.

Legislator Kathie Arnold (D-Cuyler, Solon and Truxton) said as she campaigned last fall she realized many people lack high-speed Internet access.

Arnold, Legislator Carol Tytler (D-3rd Ward) and other county officials are creating a county committee to examine the issue and find ways to extend broadband access throughout the county.

A goal will be to apply for state funding to extend broadband Internet infrastructure locally, Tytler said.

Fewer than 25 percent of New Yorkers in rural areas have access to broadband Internet, according to Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer is pledging $15 million this year to the Universal Broadband Access Grant Program, which would provide money to municipalities and other entities for expanded broadband service. For every dollar the state provides, the applicant would have to provide $4.

Cortland County missed the deadline for this year’s grant funding, but hopes to apply for the funding next year, said Cortland County Planning Department Director Dan Dineen.

He said waiting until next year to apply for the grant would give the committee time to identify needs and meet with utility companies.

Broadband service can be expanded through the addition of special equipment in underserved areas that connect with a central office. The equipment increases the distance from the office that broadband covers.

Typically the offices provide broadband coverage to locations within a radius of 3 miles.
Verizon has centers in the city of Cortland, village of Homer and village of McGraw, whereas Frontier has centers in the village of Marathon, village of Dryden, Truxton, Virgil and Cincinnatus.

Representatives from both companies said it is pretty likely they wouldn’t build new central offices in the Cortland area, but that they might consider expanding the capacity of their offices in the future.

“It’s really something we don’t discuss because of the competitive environment,” said Cliff Lee, a Verizon spokesman.

Whether the companies decide to expand capacity depends on customer demand, they said.
Both Lee and Karen Miller, a Frontier spokesman, said their companies would be interested in meeting with members of the committee that Cortland County is putting together to talk about applying for a state grant.

“I think we’ve got a pretty good track record of working with local and state governments,” Miller said. “We’d be more than happy to work with them.”

Local residents say they hope the county committee will look into possibly bringing new Internet technology to the area.

Karl Klein is an Onondaga Community College computer science professor and Solon resident who pays $80 per month for WildBlue satellite Internet service because it is his only high-speed option.

He said he’s curious about the possibility of Google rolling out wireless Internet technology everywhere across the county, a goal it has _communicated.

Google is bidding on Block C of the Federal Communications Commission’s 700 MHz spectrum, which is being auctioned as a result of U.S. television stations moving off of it and converting to digital signals in February 2009.

“With a good plan the Cortland County Legislature could maybe make sure it’s rolled out here,” he said.

Fitzgerald said he’s curious about New Visions, a company in Syracuse that delivers high-speed Internet over electrical lines to municipalities such as the village of Solvay.

Carmen Branca, New Visions president, said he’d love to sit down with Cortland County officials and talk about bringing the company’s technology here. The company has recently partnered with National Grid.

“We’ve got a lot of calls from your area, from Cortland, Tully, Virgil …,” Branca said. “This (high-speed Internet access) is very important because if affects economic development. … You can’t recruit businesses if you don’t have the infrastructure.”