Areas of the North Country are among more than 70 rural communities in New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont benefitting from a $50 million project that installed high-speed Internet service.

Independent Optical Network (ION), an Albany–based statewide fiber network, started the project in September 2010 and finished its work at the end of December, says Jim Becker, CEO of ION.

ION is a subsidiary of Bellows, Vt.–based Sovernet Communications, which provides Internet and telecommunication services throughout New England, according to an ION news release about the project. 

Of the more than 70 communities affected, about one third are located in areas of Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, and neighboring counties, Becker says.

The neighboring counties include Oneida, Franklin, Essex, and Clinton counties, according to David Wolf, general manager of DANC’s telecommunications division.

The connected communities include Lowville, Gouverneur, Star Lake, Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Elizabethtown, Plattsburgh, Malone and Potsdam, Wolf said in an email message.

The project also resulted in additional service in Canton, Alexandria Bay, Harrisville, Cape Vincent, and Watertown, Wolf added.

ION’s work in the past decade has connected more than 100 upstate New York communities and their surrounding areas with its more than 3,000 mile network, the firm said in the news release.

A $3 million investment from the Development Authority of the North Country (DANC) was part of the overall $50 million investment that also included a federal investment of $39.7 million, $6.7 million from ION, and a $3.2 million investment from Empire State Development, according to ION.

The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) project funded more than 1,400 miles of fiber-optic wiring, bringing broadband speeds to rural areas that had been at a “competitive disadvantage” when it came to broadband connections, ION said.

Its network can serve more than 300 anchor institutions, including libraries, state and community colleges, state and county agencies, and health care organizations, and is currently connected to more than 130 of those institutions.

The anchor institutions include the State University of New York Institute of Technology in Marcy and the Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake, according to Wolf.

In addition to these organizations, the project makes broadband more readily available to 250,000 households and 38,000 businesses in the three states impacted, according to the ION news release.

The communities now have high-speed connection options (up to 10Gb, 40Gb, and 100Gb capabilities) following the project.

Overlapping fiber rings exist throughout the network, so that broadband circuits can be automatically switched in another direction in the event of a break in the line or equipment failure.

“The construction of the ARRA project has enabled the Development Authority to provide two diverse paths of broadband through the Adirondack Park linking the western and eastern halves of the North Country. This will provide new opportunities for business, new jobs and greater economic development for the entire seven-county region,” James Wright, CEO of DANC, said in the ION news release.

Wright previously served as a New York State Senator serving Oswego, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence counties.

As a carrier neutral provider, ION built the infrastructure, installing fiber to more than 30,000 poles to allow various service providers to utilize as much bandwidth as they need for their customers’ use.

ION currently provides services to cellular providers, national and regional telecommunications carriers, rural service providers, as well as large businesses and enterprise throughout upstate New York and parts of Pennsylvania and Vermont.

“We’ll carry traffic for the cell carriers. We’ll carry traffic for the ISPs (Internet-service providers). We’ll carry traffic for the larger voice [companies, such as] AT&T and Sprint,” Becker says.

Their customers include Westelcom and Stamford, Conn.–based Frontier Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: FTR).

Carriers such as Verizon and Time Warner Cable have their own networks, Becker says.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) awarded funding for the project in late 2009.

In addition to the NTIA funding, the New York State Innovation Economy Matching Grant Program awarded ION an additional grant representing 10 percent of the total project cost.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com