New London The city is working to finalize a project to extend free internet access to hundreds of New London homes, targeting those without the means to afford access on their own.
Mayor Michael Passero outlined those plans during a news conference Tuesday with Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, who visited the city to promote Gov. Ned Lamont’s House Bill 6442, An Act Concerning Equitable Access to Broadband.
New London’s own plan involves a partnership with the Connecticut Education Network to use the schools and city-owned buildings to broadcast Wi-Fi hot spots and reach nearby homes.
Initially, the plan will include installation of transmitters to cover a two- to three-block radius around city schools as well as the densely populated Huntington Tower and Winthrop Square apartment complexes. The first phase may reach a portion of the Mohican Apartments on State Street.
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In his budget address on February 10, Gov. Ned Lamont announced his intent to expand broadband connectivity in Connecticut, an effort to be lauded.
Connecticut enjoys a significant competitive advantage for economic development in the Connecticut Education Network (CEN) “ … a 2,500 route mile, all optical, high-performance internet network.”
The density of CEN within Connecticut is impressively high. Connecticut taxpayers funded its initial phase; the Obama administration then added millions for further expansion, inclusive of welcoming the private sector. The impediments to leveraging this resource for economic growth are the `last mile’ connections (the distance from the network to a home or small business).
‘For the public good’: Praise for Gov. Lamont’s effort to end Connecticut’s digital divide
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Photo: John Minchillo / Associated Press
Officials representing towns across the state as well as educators and political leaders are welcoming Gov. Ned Lamont’s move to introduce legislation that would make broadband and high speed internet services more widely available as well as cheaper in Connecticut.
Alarmed that 23 percent of Connecticut residents don’t have access to internet service of any kind, Lamont said the goal of his ambitious legislation is for the state to have universal broadband service by 2022. Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker lauded Lamont’s efforts, but said the problem of widespread access to affordable high speed internet is nothing new.