The Senate Technology and Energy Committee will meet Wednesday to begin preparing a program to increase the availability of broadband Internet access in Michigan.

Chaired by Sen. Ken Sikkema, R-Grandville, the committee will be addressing what it considers to be the three concerns regarding broadband in the state - its current status - both use and deployment, what the future need for broadband will be, and what options the legislature has to expand service throughout the state.

Since the last quarter of 2001, Gov. John Engler has been promoting the initiative, called the MI HiSpeed Internet Plan, hoping it will cause broadband access throughout the state to expand.

“It’s one of the governor’s top priorities for 2002,” said Brendan Ringlever, legislative director for Sen. Sikkema.

The Link Michigan Proposal, a study concluded early this year, examined use and availability issues revolving around broadband connections, and released a report calling for increased infrastructure throughout the state.

“Michigan is, unfortunately, lagging behind the rest of the nation in the access that private homes and businesses have to high-speed Internet and broadband,” said Matthew Resch, Engler’s deputy press secretary.

It puts Michigan at a disadvantage when drawing high-tech businesses, he said, which would strongly bolster the state economy.

“We must accelerate the roll out of broadband to launch another decade of record growth,” Engler said in a written statement supporting his proposal.

The plan proposes to create a statewide financing authority to help pay for the deployment of broadband access in unserviced areas. It also would eliminate the current disparities in costs throughout various communities to employ this technology, making necessary fees uniform and creating a right-of-way mandate to make competition fair for all providers.

This week’s meeting will be the first of many to address the issue of broadband Internet. Several additional hearings will follow on future session days to examine the issue’s progress, and it is expected to be put up to a vote by the end of February.

So far, this is a plan that has been proposed, but this is the one plan that everyone will agree on, Resch said.

The committee’s first broadband meeting will be held on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the Senate Hearing Room in the former Michigan National Tower, and is open to the public.