[URBAN NOTE] "Free, fast Internet to come to New York City's poor"
Wilson Dizard at Al Jazeera America writes about the new initiative by New York City to make sure the poor will have access to free and fast Internet.
New York City announced Thursday that it will install high-speed broadband service in two public housing projects later this year, at no charge to residents, as part of a broader effort to shrink the Internet access gap between rich and poor.
"Whether you're a parent looking for a job, a child working on a school project ... broadband access is no longer a luxury; it's a necessity,” said Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in a statement. "This effort helps close the digital divide and addresses the needs of the nearly 3 million New Yorkers who do not have access to broadband Internet at home."
The first housing projects to be wired under this effort are Queensbridge North and South, in Queens, followed by Red Hook East and West Houses, in Brooklyn, and Mott Haven, in the South Bronx. The city says it hopes to bring high-speed access to 16,000 through the $10 million effort, giving them an alternative to using library computers or browsing the Web on smartphones.
The contractor for the broadband service has yet to be selected, a city official said, and the mayor's plan does not include subsidies for computers to access the Internet.
The move comes as federal regulators have started to treat Internet access as an essential household utility, rather than an optional communications service. Earlier this year, the Obama administration successfully pushed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate Internet traffic more like a public utility, such as telephone communication.
New York City announced Thursday that it will install high-speed broadband service in two public housing projects later this year, at no charge to residents, as part of a broader effort to shrink the Internet access gap between rich and poor.
"Whether you're a parent looking for a job, a child working on a school project ... broadband access is no longer a luxury; it's a necessity,” said Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in a statement. "This effort helps close the digital divide and addresses the needs of the nearly 3 million New Yorkers who do not have access to broadband Internet at home."
The first housing projects to be wired under this effort are Queensbridge North and South, in Queens, followed by Red Hook East and West Houses, in Brooklyn, and Mott Haven, in the South Bronx. The city says it hopes to bring high-speed access to 16,000 through the $10 million effort, giving them an alternative to using library computers or browsing the Web on smartphones.
The contractor for the broadband service has yet to be selected, a city official said, and the mayor's plan does not include subsidies for computers to access the Internet.
The move comes as federal regulators have started to treat Internet access as an essential household utility, rather than an optional communications service. Earlier this year, the Obama administration successfully pushed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate Internet traffic more like a public utility, such as telephone communication.