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| NYS BROADBAND MAPPING INITIATIVE FOR COMMUNITY ANCHOR INSTITUTIONS | |
Does your community anchor institution have sufficient broadband availability? New York State is gathering data about broadband services at community anchor institutions as part of a national program sponsored by NTIA.
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| Volume 5, Issue 3 | February 28, 2013 |
Dear Subscriber:
The New York State Broadband Program Office is pleased to deliver our Broadband Flash Bulletin in a web-friendly format. We are using this new format to provide you with information on broadband hot topics, policy, funding and other relevant information at the local, state and national level. |
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| Live Video Webcast on First Net | |
 A Year Later.. Understanding the $7B Opportunity and Challenges
On March 1, join Broadband US TV co-hosts Jim Baller and Marty Stern, and guests for a special program on FirstNet, one year later. The hosts will discuss the FirstNet opportunity and challenges, for state and local governments, carriers, infrastructure owners and equipment manufacturers.
One year ago, Congress created FirstNet, a federal authority within NTIA tasked with building a $7 billion nationwide wireless public safety broadband network. During the year, a 15-member FirstNet governing board has been appointed, and work is just underway to plan, design, develop, and ultimately construct the FirstNet network, with task of leveraging resources and facilities from state and local governments, wireless carriers, utilities and others.
NTIA has also just announced a $121.5 million grant program, available to states and territories, working with local and tribal governments, to staff and implement state and local FirstNet planning and coordination activities. Applications are due March 19.
To view the webcast on March 1, at 1:00 p.m. visit Broadband US.TV. |
| FCC Moves to Ease Wireless Congestion |  Last week the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took a step to relieve growing congestion on Wi-Fi networks in hotels, airports and homes, where Americans increasingly use multiple data-hungry tablets, smartphones and other devices for wireless communications. The FCC proposed making up to 195 megahertz of spectrum (an increase of up to 35% of the total amount of airwaves available for unlicensed use in the 5-gigahertz spectrum band) available for unlicensed use by devices like the Wi-Fi routers that many Americans use in their homes. The new rules, if approved, would provide speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second -100 times as fast as the Internet connection in the average American home. Unlicensed airwaves can be used by anyone, and they are increasingly used by wireless phone carriers like Verizon and AT&T, which divert nearly half of the data traffic off their systems and onto Wi-Fi networks to eliminate congestion caused by video downloads and similar bandwidth-hungry uses. After a public comment period, the commissioners will try to devise final rules and regulations, a process that could take more than a year. Possible roadblocks do exist, however, because some of the airwaves proposed for the new applications are already in use by private organizations and government agencies, including the United States military. Various government agencies ave warned against allowing consumer uses to interfere with current government applications. FCC chairman Genachowski said he was confident that the commission's engineers would be able to work with the affected government and private entities to solve interference problems. The FCC also voted to approve a regulation allowing consumers and companies to use approved and licensed signal boosters to amplify signals and improve coverage between wireless devices, like cellphones and the wireless networks on which they operate. The order will take effect March 1, 2014. Click here to read the entire NYT article. |
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The New York State Broadband Program Office serves as the single point of contact for New York State broadband development and deployment efforts. The Broadband Flash Bulletin is intended to keep you up-to-date on local, state and federal broadband initiatives. I hope you enjoy reading this issue of the NYS Broadband Flash Bulletin.
Sincerely,
The NYS Broadband Program Office |
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