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N.Y. Governor Announces “Sweeping Progress” Towards Broadband-for-All-NY’ers Goal

broadband nyGovernor Andrew M. Cuomo yesterday announced that the “New NY Broadband Program” is well on its way to achieving “sweeping progress toward achieving its nation-leading goal of broadband for all” New Yorkers.

The governor claimed that 97% of New York residents will have access to high-speed internet access by 2017, with a vague goal of serving 100% of New Yorkers by the end of 2018.

To do this, Gov. Cuomo relies heavily on the state’s new and overwhelmingly dominant cable operator – Charter Communications, which closed on its acquisition of Time Warner Cable earlier this summer. A press release promoting the governor’s efforts quotes Charter’s executive vice president of government affairs Catherine Bohigia as being excited to work with the governor and his administration to expand service to about 145,000 households currently not served by Time Warner Cable or Charter in New York.

Charter officials are working with the Public Service Commission to identify the households to be served, and highly redacted documents suggest Charter is identifying new housing developments and areas immediately next to existing Charter/Time Warner Cable service areas for this expansion.

A second separate plan to subsidize private cable and phone companies to help cover the costs of reaching another 34,000 homes that won’t be served by Charter is only expected to reach 50% of the remaining unserved homes and businesses in the state. A further round of funding will target the the remainder of unserved areas, including certain rural landline areas where Verizon has shown no interest in offering customers internet access of any kind.

Charter Communications

Charter Communications has effectively canceled the Time Warner Cable Maxx upgrades that were either underway, in progress, or in the planning stage in upstate New York. Instead, Charter plans to speed up the roll-out its own originally proposed upgrade, which includes two tiers: 60 and 100Mbps, for more than two million upstate homes and businesses by early 2017 in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton and Albany.

Customers in Central New York are likely to be left in limbo, some already getting Maxx upgraded 300Mbps internet access while others were scheduled to get the speed upgrade the same week Charter froze further Maxx upgrades. Those customers are now likely to receive a maximum of 100Mbps service sometime next year under Charter’s new plan.

Charter is also negotiating with state officials about where it will deploy broadband to 145,000 currently unserved homes in upstate New York over the next four years.

State-funded Rural Broadband Awards – Round I

New York State will help subsidize broadband rollouts to approximately 34,000 homes and businesses currently not served (or not served adequately) in rural areas. All but two of these projects will rely on fiber to the home service and each will offer service to a few thousand people:

Applicant Namesort descending Technology REDC Region Census Blocks Housing Units Total Units State Grant Total Private Match Total Project Cost
Armstrong Telecommunications, Inc. FTTH Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Western NY 176 1,135 1,162 $3,930,189 $982,549 $4,912,738
Armstrong Telephone Company FTTH Southern Tier, Western NY 74 466 504 $1,778,256 $444,564 $2,222,820
Citizens Telephone Company of Hammond, N.Y., Inc. FTTH North Country 146 1,789 1,860 $3,316,810 $829,202 $4,146,012
Empire Access FTTH Southern Tier 124 719 724 $1,797,894 $449,474 $2,247,368
Empire Access FTTH Southern Tier 117 1,202 1,268 $1,598,480 $399,620 $1,998,100
Frontier Communications FTTH Southern Tier 1 62 65 $67,592 $16,899 $84,491
Frontier Communications FTTH North Country 3 188 216 $129,634 $32,409 $162,043
Frontier Communications FTTH Southern Tier 12 129 142 $197,104 $49,276 $246,380
Frontier Communications FTTH Capital Region 23 391 394 $318,304 $79,576 $397,880
Frontier Communications FTTH Mohawk Valley 30 402 405 $924,663 $231,166 $1,155,829
Frontier Communications FTTH North Country 105 1,928 2,096 $1,702,246 $425,562 $2,127,808
Germantown Telephone Company FTTH Capital Region 208 2,195 2,334 $2,512,562 $628,140 $3,140,702
Haefele TV Inc. FTTH Southern Tier 413 3,029 3,238 $271,568 $67,892 $339,460
Hancock Telephone Company FTTH Southern Tier 136 1,505 1,675 $4,915,920 $1,228,981 $6,144,901
Heart of the Catskills Communications Hybrid-Fiber Coax Southern Tier 216 2,836 3,177 $1,224,946 $524,977 $1,749,923
Margaretville Telephone Company FTTH Mid-Hudson, Southern Tier 209 1,882 2,002 $4,791,505 $2,053,503 $6,845,008
Mid-Hudson Data Corp Fixed Wireless Capital Region 60 647 663 $950,184 $237,546 $1,187,730
Mid-Hudson Data Corp FTTH Capital Region 6 354 362 $59,155 $14,789 $73,944
State Telephone Company, Inc. FTTH Capital Region 231 3,801 4,134 $5,805,600 $1,451,400 $7,257,000
State Telephone Company, Inc. FTTH Capital Region 101 516 595 $2,914,960 $728,740 $3,643,700
TDS Telecom FTTH Southern Tier 156 2,369 2,423 $1,895,390 $1,895,390 $3,790,780
TDS Telecom FTTH North Country 74 506 543 $1,084,000 $1,084,000 $2,168,000
TDS Telecom FTTH Central NY, Finger Lakes 106 996 1,038 $1,424,793 $1,424,793 $2,849,586
TDS Telecom FTTH Southern Tier 395 3,528 3,551 $4,989,570 $4,989,570 $9,979,140
The Middleburgh Telephone Company FTTH Capital Region, Mohawk Valley 250 1,596 1,651 $5,562,548 $1,390,637 $6,953,185
Federally Funded Rural Broadband Awards – Round II

After Verizon abdicated any interest in participating in rural broadband expansion funding through the FCC’s Connect America Fund, New York’s Broadband Program Office (BPO) and the Public Service Commission urged the FCC to keep the original funding intended for rural New York intact and open to other applicants seeking to build rural broadband projects. The FCC has not fully committed to do this, but it is an agenda item. Assuming this funding becomes available, it will be used to help pay for independent broadband providers or rural cable operators to begin delivering broadband service into still unserved parts of New York not included in the Charter expansion or Round I projects noted above. Many Verizon territories are expected to be included.

Applicants will have to provide at least 100Mbps service in most places or a minimum of 25Mbps in the most remote corners of New York. The application form discourages applicants from delivering broadband over DSL or wireless and clearly favors fiber to the home or cable broadband technology. Price controls will be in place for the first few years to assure affordability and those winning funding are strictly prohibited from introducing usage caps or usage-billing.

A vaguely defined “third phase” is scheduled to launch early next year to offer internet access to all remaining unaddressed service areas. Nobody mentions where the money is coming from to cover the last 1-3% of unserved areas, which are likely to be notoriously expensive to reach.

Gov. Cuomo explains progress on his New York Broadband for All program. (26:31)

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Dale Peterson
Dale Peterson
7 years ago

Is there any information on how this will affect customers of the unloved Fairpoint Communications in Columbia County?

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