If a governmental leader understands the importance and value of technology, specifically the need for next generation connectivity to insure future economic vitality, it is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (News - Alert). After all, he did not become a billionaire by selling baseball caps from a push cart.

A recent study by the prestigious think tank, Center for an Urban Future, noted that New York is now second only to the SilconValley/Bay Area of California in terms of being a technology innovation center. Mayor Bloomberg is aiming to be number one. He knows that without a great broadband infrastructure in place this cannot happen, and at the moment New York’s needs some attention.

This is critical. It comes at a time when New York City has been confounding experts by actually increasing private sector jobs as Wall Street contracts, and most of it is being driven by a huge increase in tech jobs.

How do you get the infrastructure? The answer came from the Mayor in conjunction with City Council speaker Christine Quinn who announced an ambitious five-pronged program that if/when executed is destined to position New York City as a global, if not the dominant, digital hub.

 What it is all about —five not so easy steps

The five initiatives announced are expansive and come with very aggressive goals to be carried out in the next two years. They are: 

Connect NYC:  a competition to build out fiber connectivity for commercial and industrial buildings across the five boroughs. Through ConnectNYC, the City will assist small and medium-sized businesses, including industrial businesses, in unwired or underwired buildings to apply for free fast-track wiring. Companies would apply through a competitive process that will make awards based on a demonstration of how additional connectivity would help them grow their business. The City is currently in advanced discussions with Time Warner (News - Alert) Cable about partnering on this program. An announcement of a final agreement is anticipated in the next few weeks.

Wired NYC.  The city will publicize information about the broadband infrastructure of existing commercial buildings. It is hoped the program will offer properties an advantage when prospective tenants are deciding where to locate. More than 16 million square feet of commercial real estate in more than 300 buildings will be ranked through Wired NYC in the next two years.  It is a building certification program whose associated grading standards, will be structured in partnership with both the real estate industry – represented by Rudin Management, Jared Kushner, and others – as well as the tech sector.  

 NYC Broadband Connect Map.  This will be a public website that will unite several sources of information. The objective is to provide a comprehensive picture of available connectivity in particular neighborhoods or buildings. The New York City Economic Development Corp. (NYCEDC) has been given the task of getting this website launched this year.Broadband Express. A dedicated city staff person will serve as a liaison to businesses to streamline permitting and operations.  The stated goal is to expedite processing of broadband-related permits to within an average of two business days. The city estimates improvements could permit as many as 25,000 broadband projects in the next two years.

Citizen Connect. There will be a New York City app competition. It is intended to ease access to job-related resources for low-income residents without Internet at home. Acknowledging the more ubiquitous nature of mobile platforms, the program calls on developers to create apps to connect residents with job-related resources.

Full steam ahead

The five programs were developed by the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, along with the NYCEDC. It dovetails nicely with the recently announced “Mayors Challenge” that saw Mayor Bloomberg commit the resources of his private charity Bloomberg Philanthropies in the form of a $9 million contest that challenges the mayors of 1,300 U.S. municipalities to come up with great ideas to make government more efficient and effective. New York City was not deemed eligible to compete, although it obviously would be a beneficiary, but clearly the Mayor had bigger fish to fry.   

In what may be one of the better under-statement of the year, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert K. Steel said,  “Broadband is the infrastructure of the modern age and a basic necessity not just for tech businesses, but for every business…These initiatives will harness market dynamics and create increased transparency to incentivize the private sector to expand New York’s broadband infrastructure.”

 At the risk of sounding like a “homer”, as a very long-time resident of the New York City area I’d like you to click this link and listen to the lyrics from the famous Steve Karmen song that was the foundation of an incredibly successful multi-year ad campaign, “I Love New York.”  

 

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.