The Albany Municipal Internet Commission's report laid out some of the options the city could pursue if it decides it wants to move down that path.
The commission, created last year, looked at models from other cities around the country as well as the potential financing and revenue options to help the city manage the cost of creating and running a broadband network.
The pandemic highlighted the need to ensure all city residents can have access to the internet, the commission's chair Craig Waltz told the Common Council last week. The city school district handed out laptops to students so they could keep up with their coursework but some of those students lived in homes that didn't have internet.
"It's nice to have a right hand but if there's nothing to grab, it's not going to achieve the goal," Waltz said.
The report highlighted a study of the municipal broadband internet service in Chattanooga, Tenn. That study estimated that a $220 million investment resulted in a $2.7 billion return and 10,000 new jobs. However, many of the other cities the commission examined were smaller than Albany.
The city would need to make a number of decisions before any system is up and running, including what model it would use to transmit the internet signal to residents' homes, whether to contract out for a private operator to run the system or establish a public authority to oversee it and how to pay for the system.
Waltz warned that if the city does decide to create its own internet it will take a major investment of time and money.
"Even if we do this it won't be a fast process," he said. "I wish it were. It will cost millions and millions of dollars."
One possibility would be using the city's street poles to install nodes that would transmit a signal.
It's unclear how much creating a municipal internet system would cost and the commission was clear that the city would need to aggressively pursue grants to help bring down those costs as well as make the service affordable to all residents.
Common Council members questioned the commission on how it could keep costs down and stay competitive with private internet providers. The commission estimated that any monthly rate would have to cost around $60 a month and the city's internet service would have to provide higher download speeds or cost less to be competitive with existing internet providers.
The report notes there are subsidies available at both the state and federal levels to help local governments improve internet access.
The commission will also be doing public outreach to gather residents' opinions and additional research before issuing a final report.
© 2022 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
