pWASHINGTON D.C. — The Federal Communications Commission plans to send $170 million in unused federal funds slated to expand Internet access in upstate New York to other states. /ppU.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said upstate communities still need that money and will fight the FCC to keep it in New York./ppNew York telecommunications companies won hundreds of millions of dollars, or $48 million annually over six years, in grants to expand broadband to areas that still have need, including four companies upstate: Fairpoint, Frontier, Windstream and Verizon./ppAccording to Empire State Development’s broadband program office, Verizon has 3,666 locations in Jefferson County, 5,988 locations in St. Lawrence County and 1,002 in Lewis County, totaling $4,529,542 in unused grant money for the three counties./pp“We have $170 million just sitting there. The FCC should let other companies in upstate New York bid for the money if Verizon does not want to use it,” Mr. Schumer said. “I put the FCC on notice I will fight tooth and nail to keep that money here in upstate New York.”/ppMr. Schumer said Verizon has not told him why it declined the money./pp“The other companies that accepted the money used it all and told us that they are interested in getting more,” the senator said. “We would open the bid up to any company interested, though.”/ppAccording to Empire State Development, there are 11,420 housing units in Jefferson County without access to 25 mbps, or 20 percent of households./ppIn St. Lawrence County, 9,639 households do not have access to high speed internet, or 18 percent./pp“Like television, radio and phone communication, Internet access has gone from a novelty, to a luxury, to a necessity,” Mr. Schumer said. “When I visit upstate counties, broadband is always something county legislators ask me about.”/p
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