Broadband Committee Update

DON’T HAVE BROADBAND? YOUR FEEDBACK WANTED!

Our Broadband Committee is working with Congressman Paul Tonko to secure funding for Broadband access for all of our residents. Congressman Tonko is presently working on a letter to the FCC alerting them of the lack of Broadband access not only in our town but throughout NY’s 20th District. The FCC has tried to justify excluding New York State from federal funding opportunities under the misguided notion that all of NY State is already fully served. This is obviously not accurate. As we have shared with you before, this is due to the ineffective use of “census block” calculations to determine who is served and who isn’t. If one home in that block is served, the entire block is counted as served.

COVID-19 has magnified the barriers that result from a lack of access to broadband. These barriers range from filling out unemployment forms, students unable to work on schoolwork, from seniors unable to communicate with loved ones, from workers unable to work remotely and countless other issues.

If you have any examples of how the lack of broadband access is adversely impacting you, or someone in town that you know, and you would like that concern to be considered for inclusion in this letter to the FCC, please send such examples by email to Emily Silverberg (Emily.Silverberg@mail.house.gov) in Congressman Tonko’s office by close of business next Wednesday, April 29th. (Emily Silverberg is Congressman Tonko’s Senior Policy Advisor)