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Jan
What New York's $1 billion broadband program means to local business
- Category Featured, Announcements
From the Albany Business Review
January 22, 2015
By Chelsea Diana
Transfinder Corp. CEO Antonio Civitella said New York's plan to leverage $1 billion in private and public funds toward increasing high-speed Internet access is the right step for Albany area businesses.
During the State of the State address Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that an estimated 7 million New Yorkers and 113,000 businesses cannot get access to broadband at 100 Mbps - the minimum speed a 2014 survey of economic developers said was needed to attract and grow businesses.
The governor has said high-speed broadband access is needed for the state's efforts to attract and grow businesses because they require broadband to compete globally.
Civitella, who attended the state address, said that he was surprised by how many businesses do not have access to 100 Mbps. Transfinder, a Schenectady company that develops bus routing software, and the soon-to-be-open New York BizLab accelerator operate on a fiber-optic connection, which provides even faster Internet speeds.
