Westchester cities pin economic growth on $750M gigabit internet plan

An unprecedented $750 million plan to launch an ultra-fast internet service in Westchester County's four largest cities was unveiled Thursday and touted as one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects since the building of the Tappan Zee Bridge and the railroads.

Instead of just connecting local communities with cars and trains, project organizers said the cutting-edge internet service would allow Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains and Yonkers to tap into an exclusive global network of high-speed information sharing that is fueling previously unthinkable economic growth. The mayors of the four cities announced the initiative at a media event held by the Westchester County Association. The cities and the Westchester County Association have entered into a public-private partnership in the effort.

"What we're learning is that digital infrastructure can be every bit as important (as roads and bridges)," New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson said. "As we come to rely on high-speed access to information — whether we are business, whether we are medical providers or whether we are residents — that kind of high-speed access is not going to be a luxury, it is going to be a requirement.

"I regard this as our effort to stake a claim to the future," Bramson said of the internet project.

He joined 50 community leaders in White Plains to discuss bringing "gigabit" internet service to the cities. The service is fast enough to handle massive amounts of data and fuel previously impossible growth in cutting-edge industries like health care, education and manufacturing.

The mayors and other officials took turns Thursday touting the benefits of gigabit service from increasing real estate value, healthcare technology advances and job growth.

The Lower Hudson Valley cities seek to be the first in New York state with the super-speedy broadband network community wide. It is already available in about 50 communities nationally. For perspective, gigabit speed means downloading a movie in less than two minutes, for instance, rather than 30 on traditional networks.

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One gigabit per second is about 14 times faster than the typical broadband speed in the United States.

Financing details remain unclear for the Westchester cities' gigabit plan, which would take three to five years to complete. What follows are three financing options as described by the project's organizers:

• Internet companies would bid for a contract to provide gigabit service to the cities. A highly competitive marketplace nationally has prompted a war among major broadband players, such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon. Tech giants, like Google and Facebook, have also entered the fray and offered new services. The competition is poised to benefit customers amid price wars and speed upgrades, such as the gigabit expansion underway nationally.
• The cities own the gigabit service. The municipally owned model would be similar to a city-owned energy and water utility that bills customers based on tapping into the service. The public ownership approach has been used in cities like Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Burlington, Vermont. But problems have arisen in other cities using this model because the service requires large upfront investments to launch and faces outside competition.
• The cities borrow money that pays for launching the service. This scenario consists of each city bonding to cover the project cost, which would include installing broadband fiber. As part of the borrowing, the cities may decide to partner with private Internet companies willing to cover a portion of the project cost. That again would involve a public bidding process among businesses.

Joan McDonald, a strategic consultant for the Westchester County Association, described the applications for gigabit service as seemingly endless.

She outlined the benefits of ultra-fast internet to businesses, such as boosting telecommuting and data sharing. In health care, gigabit means better options for telehealth and other digital care. Many industries in general are using gigabit speeds to make high-stakes investments based on big data and analytics.

In education, the faster internet opens up partnerships among schools and colleges. In government, the gigabit service is being applied to improve smart-energy power grids and public safety, such as broadening police department’s digital presence.

“We need the right digital infrastructure with the capacity and speed to make us competitive in the new economy and by the way this is nothing short of revolutionary for our county,” said William Mooney Jr., president and chief executive officer of Westchester County Association.

While gigabit service can be offered to residents and businesses, McDonald said its too early to determine details on which customers would receive access in Westchester County's four cities, or how it would be expanded outside those communities.

Organizers estimated the project cost based on other communities' gigabit service and the four Westchester cities’ population, which stands at about 405,000. The price ceiling may approach $1 billion.

White Plains Mayor Tom Roach noted that gigabit service would be a crucial addition to the reliable transit and proximity to New York City that already attracts people and businesses to the Lower Hudson Valley.

"The peg we can add now when we get through all this is the big broadband; that big pipe that is going to make all the difference in the world," Roach said.

Outside New York, other cities with the gigabit service, from San Francisco and Austin to Atlanta and Nashville, are seeing it used in a broad range of fields to forge breakthroughs. For example, doctors remotely performing surgeries with robots and digital screens, and researchers sharing complex data sets almost instantaneously.

The gigabit expansion exploded after Google Fiber launched in 2010. Since then, the search engine and technology giant has slowly but steadily grown its footprint and pressured traditional players, like AT&T and Comcast, USA TODAY reported.

Google Fiber operates only in a handful of cities, with six more being built out, and it's in discussion with 13 more cities.

AT&T, and its GigaPower Network, is already in 25 major metropolitan areas and is expanding to an additional 31, many of them this year, USA TODAY reported.

Comcast has rolled out gigabit service in Atlanta and Nashville, and plans to introduce it this year in Chicago, Detroit and Miami, with more markets coming.

Internet providers, including Comcast, AT&T and Verizon, didn't immediately return requests for comment about Westchester's gigabit plan Thursday.

Meanwhile, some Americans still face a patchwork and outdated broadband system.

The U.S. ranks 16th in the world in average internet connection speed, USA TODAY reported. That is lower than Turkey, Kenya and Paraguay and on par with Thailand.

Mayor Richard Thomas of Mount Vernon and Mayor Mike Spano of Yonkers focused Thursday on how gigabit service would reduce the digital divide, resulting in better access among low-income neighborhoods and schools.

“The only limit to technology is access, and in communities that are hard hit, particularly some very small areas in Mount Vernon, you can access a handgun quicker than you can an iPhone or a tablet,” Thomas said. “This (gigabit) investment will make it possible for communities of color, particularly Mount Vernon, to gain access to technology and provide alternatives to violence.”

Spano pointed to the plan’s potential for expanding broadband fiber and boosting competition among internet providers to drive down prices. He noted that Yonkers' struggling schools would also benefit when more students can use high-speed internet.

“We want to break that cycle of poverty. In my opinion, this is a great first step,” Spano said.

While the Lower Hudson Valley has several current internet service options, many communities in New York and nationally have limited options, or none at all.

About 2 million businesses and homes in New York do not have high-speed service, but state officials, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, announced plans this year to have high-speed internet available throughout the state by the end of 2018.

Still, the high-speed Internet involved in Cuomo’s plan wouldn’t be as fast as the gigabit service being pursued in the four Westchester cities.

The state has designated $500 million to expand broadband upstate, and much of the money will go to rural areas.

“This is infrastructure for today. This is what the road system was in the '50s,” Cuomo said of efforts to expand high-speed internet.