Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office has solicited endorsements for the #Broadband4All campaign from dozens of businesses around the state including some in Potsdam, Ogdensburg and Nicholville.

CITEC business advisors based in Potsdam, and Blue Heron Realty in Ogdensburg, are among the 95 businesses from across upstate New York who say they are supporting the #Broadband4All campaign, the governor’s proposal to expand the state’s broadband infrastructure.

Nicholville Telephone Company and Slic Network Solutions, major benefactors in the public push for rural broadband development, are also on that list.

Slic received a $33,161,409 grant and loan funding package in 2010 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Broadband Initiatives Program to bring broadband to sparsely populated rural areas of the country.

Slic, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nicholville Telephone Company, was awarded the grant through USDA Rural Development’s Rural Utilities Service.

Before such targeted funding assistance became available, usually through a combination of grants and loans, broadband providers were unable to afford to build the infrastructure needed to provide high-speed internet access that businesses require to locate in rural areas.

Broadband plays a crucial role in supporting economic activity in both rural and urban communities, and New York’s competitiveness and overall business climate would be dramatically improved by the implementation of the Governor’s New NY Broadband Program, the press release from the governor said..

Nationwide, the amount of annual e-commerce sales from web-only merchants grew from approximately $9.72 billion in 2003 to nearly $106 billion in 2013. It is also closely linked to job creation – regardless of industry, broadband is considered responsible for 43 percent of all new jobs created by businesses across the country since 2013.