ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure Grant Program Awards Over $140 Million o Bring Affordable High-Speed Broadband to More Than 60,000 Homes and Businesses

Over $140 million in awards from the ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure Grant Program will expand broadband infrastructure throughout Central New York, the Finger Lakes, Mohawk Valley, North Country, Mid-Hudson, and Western New York regions. These public-private partnerships will lead to the construction of more than 1,200 miles of publicly-owned fiber optic infrastructure and wireless hubs, connecting over 60,000 homes and businesses with affordable, symmetric service — offering equal download and upload speeds at rates below regional averages. These six new grants build on previous awards, bringing the program’s total to $214.7 million, funded primarily by the Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund. Altogether, the program now supports over 2,000 miles of broadband infrastructure, reaching more than 87,000 homes and businesses statewide. The most recent awardees of the Municipal Infrastructure Program include:

• Orleans County (Finger Lakes) – $11 million: Orleans County will utilize $11 million in MIP funds to extend its wireless internet network to serve more than 11,000 locations with 100/100 Mbps speed. This project will build on a successful wireless internet project the county launched in 2020 with RTO Wireless, by installing 14 wireless hubs on existing and new towers. The County will own the constructed network. North Shore Networks LLC from Medina, NY will design, construct, and operate. The towers will be open for lease to other ISPs. The county will also extend its partnership with the United Way to provide digital literacy training and community outreach, addressing the adoption barrier among low-income households. The project addresses the challenge of providing high-speed internet in rural areas with a low population density of 103 people per square mile. The county's cutting-edge wireless solution, combined with strong community partnerships, provides a cost-effective alternative to fiber networks, promoting digital equity and enhancing connectivity for residents, businesses, education and the agricultural community.
• Broadband for Schoharie County (Mohawk Valley) – $30 million: The Broadband for Schoharie County project will construct 298 miles of fiber to connect more than 4,000 locations, including substantially all of the unserved locations in the county. The new infrastructure will reach the most rural and hard to reach areas of the county. The county will partner with MIDTEL, which has been serving customers in the County for over 125 years. The county will own the infrastructure and will leverage MIDTEL’s expertise to construct and operate the network. The network will be open-access, with interconnection points at MIDTEL’s central office and at two aggregation points distributed across the county. This initiative will make service available at prices well below the county average with the goal of improving educational, health and work outcomes particularly in low-income areas of the county.
• Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board (Central New York) – $26 Million: The Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board will establish CNYNET, a regional open-access fiber network to serve 6,671 locations in the Counties of Cayuga and Cortland. The Board conducted a Broadband Infrastructure Study in 2021 to develop the network design, which provides the optimum opportunity to expand consumer choice to unserved locations and surrounding areas in the two counties. The Board will form CNYNET, Inc., as 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 (North Country) – $13.1 Million: Franklin County will connect unserved locations using Fiber-to-Home and Next Generation Fixed-Wireless solutions. The county is partnering with Airosmith Development for design and LayerEight for construction and operation, building 144 miles of fiber and installing four poles for wireless links and coverage. The county will own and operate one part of the new infrastructure with Hudson Valley Wireless serving as the internet service provider. In Area 2 adjacent to the St. Regis Mohawk territory, the county will transfer the infrastructure to Mohawk Networks acting on behalf of the Tribal Council after substantial network completion and Mohawk Networks will be the service provider in that area. In total, this project will connect 1567 locations, including 46 Community Anchor Institutions.
• Sullivan County (Mid-Hudson) – $29.9 Million: Sullivan County is partnering with Archtop Fiber LLC to serve over 22,000 homes and businesses, leveraging the county's existing towers and Archtop’s capabilities in fiber optic construction. Sullivan County will own the infrastructure, while Archtop Fiber and Hudson Valley Wireless will serve as internet service providers. The county will build 253 miles of fiber and one new communication tower, in addition to 11 towers it already owns, extending broadband service to unserved and underserved locations. Sullivan County faces unique challenges due to its rural, mountainous terrain, low population density and status, as the most distressed of the seven counties represented by the Hudson Valley Regional Council that have long deterred broadband deployment in the county. This initiative reverses that trend for many of the unserved homes in the county and creates new opportunities in health, education and economic well-being.
• City of Jamestown / EntryPoint Networks Inc. (Western New York) – $29.9 Million: The City of Jamestown is partnering with EntryPoint Networks and Quanta Telecommunication Services to build an open-access fiber network to serve all 14,447 homes and businesses served by the Jamestown public utility. The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities will own and operate the infrastructure, with EntryPoint Networks providing telecom equipment and software and Quanta managing design and construction. This project will address longstanding concerns in the community over broadband reliability and affordability. Along with lowering consumer costs and enhancing network performance and reliability, the network will drive economic opportunity, improve education outcomes for children in Jamestown, and advance health care and general well-being for the entire town.