NY Official Defends Satellite Broadband, Says Pre-empting Cities Would Drive Wireless
A New York legislator defended using satellite broadband to cover some remote areas in the state broadband program. At a budget hearing livestreamed Thursday from Albany, Assemblyman Billy Jones (D) complained that his upstate constituents aren’t satisfied with satellite broadband…
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and want better cellphone coverage. Eric Gertler, acting commissioner at the New York Department of Economic Development, replied that 25 Mbps satellite helps fill in gaps where laying fiber is too expensive. "We can't always do fiber” because the return on investment “is just prohibitive,” he said. ROI is also a challenge for spreading wireless coverage, but to help, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is proposing in the budget to ease the local permitting process for wireless infrastructure (see 2001230043), Gertler said.