Lahman: To succeed, Rochester needs Internet speed

How much Internet do we need?

The answer is clear: More than we have.

High speed Internet is crucial for many businesses, especially in high-tech sectors. But access to those broadband networks remains spotty in upstate New York.

In January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled details of his $1 billion plan to expand high speed-Internet access throughout New York state by 2019.

It's an ambitious project which could provide a jolt to economies in struggling upstate cities, but I think it's not nearly ambitious enough.

Under the program, the state would provide matching funds for broadband companies who provide Internet speeds of at least 100 Mbps — which is currently limited across much of upstate — though it's readily available in New York City and its suburbs.

Large swaths of the state's population lacks access to high speed Internet, according to data compiled by the state's Broadband Program Office. As of July 2014, they reported that 100 Mbps was essentially unavailable to residents in Monroe County and the eight other counties in the Finger Lakes region. Roughly 75,000 residents in the region don't even have access to 6 Mbps Internet speeds, the state's minimum standard.

What do those speeds mean in practical terms?

At 100 Mbps, you could download a 6 GB file — say, the latest Hobbit movie — in about 48 seconds. The same file would take an hour and 13 minutes at 6 Mbps. That's annoying if you're waiting on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. If you're a startup company trying to do business online, those slow speeds could put you out of business.

The standard residential packages from local providers like Time Warner Cable offer speeds of up to 15 Mbps, with more advanced packages boasting speeds of up to 50 Mbps.

So, Cuomo's plan to get everybody up to 100 Mbps is a big jump.

But just days ago, Google announced plans to roll out its gigabit Internet service — 10 times faster than Cuomo's proposal — in four southeast cities. Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham will benefit from these new fiber-optics networks, which Google has already rolled out in Kansas City, Austin and Provo.

Google also announced it's exploring the possibility of adding five more cities: Phoenix, Portland, Oregon, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and San Jose.

So you might be asking yourself, why do those faster speeds matter? Why do I need to download a movie in 48 seconds?

Because advances in technology are driven by the amount of bandwidth available. Twenty years ago when folks connected to the Internet using phone lines and modems, the idea of downloading software updates or sharing videos was far-fetched. It simply wasn't possible to transfer data fast enough. Ten years ago, the idea of streaming shows on demand was impractical, but an increasing number of Americans have ditched cable or satellite subscriptions to watch TV using services like Netflix or Hulu.

These innovations were made possible by increased bandwidth, and as we increase our capabilities, new innovations will emerge. Ten years from now, we'll have new technologies that you can't even imagine today.

I'll be grateful when we get 100 Mbps service here, but we're already far behind folks in other cities. It's not just about my friends in Kansas City and Atlanta being able to download movies. It's about the businesses that will head there because they need more bandwidth to make their businesses run. We need to be more aggressive if we're going to keep some of those businesses here.

Sean Lahman's column appears in print on Sundays.