The state says it’s making progress in a plan to provide rural-broadand service across New York. Launched in May, the first phase of the ConnectALL 21st Century Municipal Infrastructure pilot program targets four communities — including two in the Southern Tier and a pair in the North Country. In addition to the completed network in […]
The state says it’s making progress in a plan to provide rural-broadand service across New York.
Launched in May, the first phase of the ConnectALL 21st Century Municipal Infrastructure pilot program targets four communities — including two in the Southern Tier and a pair in the North Country.
In addition to the completed network in the village of Sherburne in Chenango County, construction is rapidly progressing in the town of Nichols in Tioga County.
Besides Sherburne and Nichols, the pilot program is also building fiber-optic infrastructure in the town of Diana in Lewis County and the town of Pitcairn in St. Lawrence County.
The program is using fiber-optic infrastructure on the New York Power Authority’s (NYPA) existing transmission system. The process is ahead of schedule due to NYPA and the Village of Sherburne and Town of Nichols optimizing implementation plans, the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Dec. 20.
“We are so pleased to provide a state-of-the-art fiber optic network to our customers that will allow the village to control & monitor electric loads and at the same time provide Open Access to Internet Service Providers for all our electric customers,” Village of Sherburne Mayor William Acee said. The “timing could not have been better for entry into Governor Hochul’s ConnectALL Program. This investment in fiber infrastructure will benefit Sherburne in the same way” the electric system did in 1905, he added.
The $10 million, four-municipality pilot project has completed construction enabling high-speed internet access to more than 2,000 previously unserved or underserved households and business customers.
The pilot program is part of the $1 billion ConnectALL initiative, which Hochul announced in the 2022 State of the State address. The program represents the largest public investment in broadband in the state’s history, per Hochul’s office.
NYPA is managing the broadband deployment in the four locations leveraging its existing fiber-optic infrastructure for the “middle mile,” as authorized by the state legislature in April.
Sherburne Electric, Development Authority of the North Country, and Southern Tier Network are partnering on the last-mile broadband infrastructure. Private internet-service providers are using the public infrastructure to deliver internet service to residents.
The new customers in Sherburne are paying about $40 per month for service, “well below the average price for broadband in Chenango County, based on the Department of Public Service’s Regional 2022 Survey of Internet Service Pricing,” Hochul’s office said.
“Our community has come together and we are very happy to be provided this opportunity to support virtual school lessons and people continuing to working from home,” Esther Woods, supervisor of the Town of Nichols, said. “This is a huge asset to us. We feel we are finally in the 21st century. We want to thank all the people involved with this project; it’s greatly appreciated.”