WAMPSVILLE, N.Y. — Work crews on the Madison County Connect project will begin installing the fiber network on Monday, Sept. 9 as the county partners with Syracuse Utilities on the project, the county announced.
The first route slated for installation is a five-mile stretch of buried fiber from the intersection of Lakeport Road and Tag Road in the town of Sullivan to Colton Road in the village of Canastota.
There are three phases to the network construction, with the first phase including Sullivan, Chittenango, Lenox, Canastota, Lincoln, Oneida, Stockbridge, Fenner, Cazenovia, and Smithfield.
The second phase will connect Munnsville, Morrisville, Eaton, Nelson, Lebanon, Hamilton, Georgetown, and DeRuyter, while the final segment will connect Madison and Brookfield.
“Madison County set out over five years ago to ensure that everyone in our community truly had access to reliable high-speed internet,” Madison County Administrator Mark Scimone said in a statement. “Our society revolves around being online, whether it is for school, health care, or even for fun. Everyone deserves the opportunity to be able to access high-speed, reliable internet. We are excited to begin running fiber to bring high-speed internet to thousands.”
The Madison County Rural Broadband Network will bring high-speed internet to unserved households and businesses in the county. The ReConnect portion of the project involves 269 miles of fiber to serve more than 6,500 homes. The county will own the network and partner with Empire Access to provide the broadband service.
The county broke ground on the project in November 2023 with the installation of the first hut in the town of Sullivan. Since then, all eight huts that house the equipment for the fiber-optic network have been placed. Now construction moves on to the 269 miles of fiber-optic cabling begins with fiber purchased from Graybar. The county expects to complete the project by the end of 2025.
Communities will be brought online in phases until Madison County reaches its goal. Residents will be able to connect as the project is ongoing.
The county received a USDA ReConnect Grant of $12.8 million in 2021. The full project cost is $18.6 million with a $3.4 million match from Madison County and a $2.4 million investment from Empire Access. Other project partners include New York Engineering Services, ECC Technologies, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.