New York has awarded six grants totaling more than $140 million for publicly owned broadband networks. Funding for the awards came through the state’s ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure Grant Program.
That program, in turn, was funded through the Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund. The projects will lead to more than 1,200 miles of new fiber and wireless hubs that will provide access to more than 60,000 addresses. The program now supports more than 2,000 miles of broadband infrastructure and reaches more than 87,000 addresses across the state.
This week’s announcements:
Orleans County, which is in the Finger Lakes region, was awarded $11 million to extend its wireless Internet network to provide more than 11,000 locations with 100/100 Mbps service.
RTO Wireless will design, construct and operate 21 wireless hubs on existing and new towers. The county will own the network, and towers will be leased to other ISPs.
Broadband for Schoharie County in the Mohawk Valley was awarded $30 million to deploy 298 miles of fiber to connect more than 4,000 locations, including virtually all unserved locations in the county.
The county will own the infrastructure and partner MIDTEL will provide expertise to construct and operate the open-access network. There will be interconnection points at MIDTEL’s central office and at two aggregation points elsewhere in the county.
The Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board was awarded $26 million to establish CNYNET, a regional open-access fiber network to serve 6,671 locations in Cayuga and Cortland counties. It will be a non-profit local development corporation to own and manage the network. Empire Access will operate the network and deliver residential internet service over the network.
Franklin County, which is in the North Country, was awarded $13.1 million to connect 1,567 unserved locations using FTTH and fixed wireless access (FWA). The county is partnering with Airosmith Development for design and LayerEight for construction and operations. The project will feature building of 144 miles of fiber and installation of four poles for wireless links and coverage.
The county will own and operate one part of the new infrastructure, where Hudson Valley Wireless will serve as the ISP. Another part of the infrastructure is adjacent to the St. Regis Mohawk territory, where the county will transfer infrastructure to Mohawk Networks. Mohawk Networks also will be the service provider.
Sullivan County in the mid-Hudson region was awarded $29.9 million to make fiber and fixed wireless service available to more than 22,000 homes and businesses. The county will own the network, while Archtop Fiber and Hudson Valley Wireless will serve as ISPs.
The county will build 253 miles of fiber and add a new communication tower to the 11 it already owns.
Jamestown and EntryPoint Networks Inc. in western New York were awarded $29.9 million. The city is partnering with EntryPoint and Quanta Telecommunication Services to build an open-access fiber network. The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities will own and operate the infrastructure. EntryPoint will provide telecom equipment and software and Quanta will manage design and construction. Service will be made available to all 14,447 homes and businesses served by the Jamestown public utility.
Additional information about New York broadband, including links to state funding resources, state specific Telecompetitor coverage, awards made and more, can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation web page for the state.
