State of New York Releases First-Of-Its Kind Statewide Address-Level Broadband Map

From GCN:

An address-level, interactive broadband map will help officials in New York explore statewide high-speed internet availability, assess connectivity needs and better allocate state and federal funding.

The map is the result of months of field assessments conducted by the New York State Public Service Commission, which worked with 60 internet service providers and surveyed tens of thousands of New York consumers, the governor’s office said in a statement. It also relied on New York’s Street and Address Maintenance database, in which business and residential addresses have been geocoded to support Next-Generation 911 and other services. Additionally, a fiber optic and coaxial asset inventory program physically inspected over 80,000 miles of network infrastructure in the most remote places in the state.

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According to an accompanying report, 97.4% of the state’s address locations have access to high-speed broadband service. But more rural areas in Hamilton and Lewis County show lower coverage rates, posting 70.2% and 73%, respectively. In addition, “counties with the lowest median income were found to have the highest average prices for broadband,” the statement said.

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More From NY Gov. Kathy Hochul:

The interactive map allows users to explore the state’s broadband availability. Users are able to search an address to see what providers are available, what technology those providers are using and what speeds and pricing packages they offer. Users are also able to search at county, municipal, and school district levels to obtain data on percentages of served, underserved, or unserved populations at each level.

The new map will allow individual New Yorkers and policymakers to analyze a more accurate representation of which locations are served, underserved or unserved. The Commission found that 97.4 percent of New York State address locations are served by high-speed broadband service providers. The map demonstrates that high-speed broadband services remain unavailable to many New Yorkers in predominately rural areas, in places like Hamilton County, and Lewis County, which are 70.2 percent and 73 percent served, respectively. Furthermore, it shows that counties with the lowest median income were found to have the highest average prices for broadband and the lowest percentage of served locations.

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