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Melissa McCaw
But the providers of that service are also watching with concern as Connecticut’s state government ramps up efforts to seek greater control over their plans, policies and checkbooks.
“It s critically clear in the 21st century the importance of having access to reliable internet,” state Budget Chief Melissa McCaw said during a recent briefing on the proposed state budget. “This is also about economic opportunity to the extent to which more remote work is done. There are sectors of our population that don t have access to those types of jobs without closing the broadband divide.”
Central to the issue is the state’s persistent digital divide, the difficulty that a portion of the community has in getting online. Gov. Ned Lamont’s office estimates that 23% of Connecticut’s population can’t access reliable internet, either because they lack service, skills or the right devices. Lamont’s focus for 2021 is building out the broadband infrastructure.
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My Turn: Broadband opportunities internet as infrastructure
Published: 2/2/2021 12:22:14 PM
On Dec 10. Tim Wilkerson, president and CEO of the New England Cable and Telecommunications Association, penned an article opining on what he termed the public misperception of broadband delivery in small-town America. It appears the article was written to try and justify Comcast’s latest announcement that unlimited data would be ending and why this is unlikely to cost their subscribers very much money.
Mr. Wilkerson also cited examples of municipal internet services in two New England towns that had failed. The inference is that we should trust the existing telephone and cable companies to provide basic internet services and not to go down a risky path of setting up a municipal internet service in our towns.
‘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.