City Council member Gale Brewer sponsored the legislation creating the commission, partly to educate the public about new technologies such as WiMax, public WiFi and even broadband over power lines. 'New York City is one of the most wired cities in the U.S., but we are falling behind our international competitors,' said Brewer, chairwoman of the city's Committee on Technology in Government.

New York's boroughs are served by DSL and cable broadband service, but two cable providers have split the territories, while only Verizon offers DSL service, meaning some residents have just a single broadband option. About 38 percent of city residents subscribe to broadband, a number Brewer believes could be higher with more technology options and lower costs. Those comments came in testimony at a hearing earlier in December.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has supported private sector provisioning of broadband, is expected to okay the advisory committee, said Bruce Lai, Brewer's chief of staff.

The new Broadband Advisory Committee would 'review the ways and methods of using municipal resources to accelerate the build-out of current, emerging and any newly developed broadband technologies and other advanced telecommunications and information services,' according to the legislation. The committee will have 15 members, eight to be appointed by the mayor and seven by the speaker of the city council. The committee's life would expire at the end of 2008.

New York is an important new frontier for WiFi or other wireless technology, given its eight million residents and its geography of boroughs separated by waterways, analysts have noted. New Orleans, Philadelphia and San Francisco are already implementing public WiFi, as are about 300 other municipalities in North America, according to Yankee Group Inc. in Boston.