New York’s Broadband for All initiative aims to deliver high-speed internet across the state, creating new opportunities for rural companies to use state funding to reach communities that have long lacked reliable service.
“How Many of Us Are There?” Husband and wife duo Bill Gruber and Helen McLean live in Franklin, New York. Their home sits among the rolling hills of rural Delaware County. “I mean this is basically a dirt road with three or four residents on the whole length,” Gruber said. The couple runs Gibson Hill Services, a small tech-support business. Gruber said the internet service provider in the area is Frontier, a national corporation that serves many rural areas. “It’s pretty good for a rural telephone company whose stocks in the toilet, who keeps spending money serving these underserved customers who basically–they’re not making money on this,” Gruber said.
Bill and Helen’s internet is slow. Financially, it might not make sense for Frontier to provide them broadband speed internet without the state’s money. Most of the companies that have won awards have been local. The state’s definition of “broadband speed” is 100 megabits per second (Mbps). Bill and Helen say they’d take even a third of that.
Mark Schneider, CEO of Delaware County Electric Cooperative, wants to get people like Bill and Helen broadband speed internet. The state money coupled with federal funds makes it enticing for local companies to expand access and hire local employees to meet the project deadline.
