New $8.9 Million State Grant Boosts Dryden, NY Muni Fiber Network Build and Expansion Into Neighboring Caroline NY

Dryden NY seal

The towns of Dryden and Caroline, New York have been awarded a new $8.9 million broadband grant courtesy of the New York State ConnectALL program. The award will help deliver affordable fiber capable of symmetrical speeds up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) to residents of both towns, which until now, had been trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Launched two years ago, Dryden officials have told ISLR they’re making steady inroads on municipally-owned fiber deployment to the town of 14,500. Now they’re looking to expand the popular local broadband network further into the town of nearby Caroline.

According to an announcement by Dryden Fiber, this latest grant award will help fund the construction of over 125 miles of new fiber to reach 2,650 new residences in Dryden and Caroline. The first customers in Caroline are expected to be online sometime within the next twelve months.

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Dryden fiber groundbreaking

“I find a real partnership between the Town of Dryden, Town of Caroline, and the New York State ConnectALL Office,” Dryden Fiber Executive Director, David Makar says of the award. “Years of hard work and seed planting from elected officials, citizen volunteers, and private partner businesses are now showing up ready to provide top-tier quality broadband service for the residents of Dryden and Caroline.”  

Dryden’s existing network began with a 50-home trial pilot trial in the southwest part of town several years ago. The broader $15 million network is being funded by a combination of bonds, $2 million in federal COVID-19 disaster relief funding, an Appalachian Regional Commission grant, and eventually, subscriber revenues.

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Dryden town hall

As of March, Dryden officials told ILSR that their fiber network had passed 420 addresses in a town with an estimated 6,420 housing units and an estimated 200 businesses. Most of these addresses struggled with access to affordable broadband courtesy of a local monopoly on next-generation broadband access at the hands of Charter Communications (Spectrum).

As the Dryden Fiber website indicates, connected locals will have access to fiber broadband at three speed tiers: symmetrical 400 Megabits per second (Mbps) for $45 a month, symmetrical 700 Mbps for $75 a month, and symmetrical gigabit broadband service for $90 a month.

“We want to show municipalities elsewhere that there is a better way for residents to get affordable service,” says Dryden Deputy Supervisor Dan Lamb. “Dryden Fiber is a data-driven project guided by multiple studies and a strong volunteer team that put us in a position to be successful when the federal funding came along.”