“The 21 people in my office are very mission-driven, and working on [broadband expansion] has deepened our commitment to the public and the state. We get to see all the different ways this broadband investment ties into distinct visions for various regions of New York.”
That’s what Joshua Breitbart — Senior Vice President of New York’s Empire State Development, which is tasked with fulfilling the state’s ambitious ConnectALL initiative — told Telecompetitor in an interview earlier this month.
Breitbart has spent most of his career working on broadband projects of one kind or another, initially in Detroit and Philadelphia and, eventually, in New York City, where he served as the Senior Advisor for Broadband and Deputy Chief Technology Officer for the New York City Mayor’s Office.
In early 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the formation of the Empire State Development ConnectALL initiative in her “State of the State” address. “For somebody who’d been working in this field for about 20 years,” Breitbart said, “the holistic approach, strategy, and vision for ConnectALL was thrilling and inspiring.”
Breitbart was appointed to lead the ConnectALL initiative in September 2022. “When this opportunity for this position opened, I was thrilled to be considered for it,” Breitbart said. “I’ve been working in this field for about two decades in a variety of roles. I’ve worked on it from policy, research, little community organizations — a variety of ways. I love New York. Many of us say that, but I truly, truly mean it.”
New York’s Holistic Broadband Vision
New York’s ConnectALL initiative is a combination of five programs:
- A Digital Equity Program to support internet adoption so New Yorkers can “participate in our society, democracy, and economy”
- The ConnectALL Deployment Program, for broadband expansion to the state’s unserved and underserved locations
- Regional and Local Assistance to help local leaders make deployment or digital equity plans
- A Municipal Infrastructure Program for towns, nonprofit organizations, utilities, and other entities to deploy broadband infrastructure
- The Affordable Housing Connectivity Program, which retrofits affordable housing with high-speed broadband
Breitbart said New York’s total investment in these broadband programs is about $1.3 billion, which is a mix of state funding, money from the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund, and funds from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
New York’s BEAD Program funds — about $665 million — will be used primarily for the ConnectALL Deployment Program. Breitbart said the state has about 70,000 locations left to reach. His office is working closely with the state’s broadband service providers to determine how many of those locations can be reached, sustainably, by fiber.
Outreach to local leaders across New York is a strongpoint of the state’s approach to broadband, Breitbart said. “We have great partners across the state. We build on work at the regional and county level, which helped us refine the original map challenge process. It’s been a continuing source of strength, allowing us to refine the maps over time and build a really robust infrastructure with local stakeholders across the state.”
Breitbart added that letters of support from local and Tribal leaders are part of the scoring criteria for the state’s BEAD applications.
He is realistic about New York’s chances to reach every one of its remaining locations with fiber broadband. “Given that we are a state with nearly five million locations on the FCC map, and we’ve gone through years of funding programs, what’s left to serve is the hardest of the hard.”
“The smaller the number gets, the more challenging it becomes.”
New York’s first-round BEAD application window is open now, with applications due by February 7. When asked if he expects New York to go through multiple rounds of BEAD applications, Breitbart answered, “We didn’t want to be in the situation, given the timeline and the scale of what we’re working with, to deal with too many rounds.
“We’re allowing for 100% fiber in the project area, but we’re allowing for other percentages, too. That way, we can see the full range of options in the first round — we can see what the project can do and what we can do with the available budget. Our goal is to be able to address the vast majority of the project areas through the first round and maximize the number of locations met with fiber.”
Looking Beyond BEAD
When it comes to broadband in New York, says Breitbart, “there’s so much more to the governor’s vision for ConnectALL than BEAD.” Talking with him, it’s clear that the ConnectALL Deployment Program is important, but not more so than the other four programs of the ConnectALL initiative.
“One of the great things about being part of Empire State Development is that we think about the full impact and scope of the effect broadband can have — what educational, economic, and health impacts we can have with broadband investments.”
Over and over, Breitbart emphasized that his office could not do this work without the collaborative process they have established with the “engaged and knowledgeable people across the state.” He described his office’s partnerships with local leaders as a gift, especially in an “incredibly diverse” state.
Ultimately, Breitbart understands that the legacy of ConnectALL will depend on how successful Empire State Development is at realizing the initiative’s ambitious, holistic vision.
“That’s how we expect to be judged: Are all New Yorkers benefiting from and participating in the civic life of the state, where the digital economy is such a huge component of that? That’s what we look for — that there’s an infrastructure out there and a broadband market everybody can participate in, so we have robust participation and all New Yorkers share in that economy.”
Additional information about New York broadband, including state funding resources, awards made, and state-specific coverage, can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
