Image
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
New $8.9 Million State Grant Boosts Dryden, NY Muni Fiber Network Build and Expansion Into Neighboring Caroline NY
By
on
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.
Image
“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.
Image
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.”
Geoterm
Related Stories
Bell Canada’s Ziply Acquisition Raises Questions About Open Access In The Pacific Northwest
Bell Canada’s history of anti-competitive behavior could herald a culture shift at the ascending provider with Ziply and Bell Canada’s rapid-fire acquisition of smaller providers across the Pacific Northwest.
Fort Dodge Iowa Boosts Funding For Popular Municipal Fiber Network
The city council voted to provide a $3.1 million loan from the city’s sewer fund to complete the build-out of Fort Dodge Fiber. In 2021, the city borrowed $33.3 million to pay for building the fiber optic utility with a loan to be paid off with revenue generated by Fort Dodge Fiber as the project expanded. But thanks to inflation and increasing labor and material costs, that $33.3 million isn’t going to be enough to finish the project.
New Resource Alert: ILSR Unveils Community Networks Predictive Map
In September we released our updated map pinpointing the location of the 400 municipally owned Internet service providers now serving almost 800 communities across the United States. Today, we unveil our predictive map that provides a multi-layered look into the near future of community broadband networks.
Northampton, MA Welcomes Gateway Fiber, Hasn’t Ruled Out Municipal Network
Though Northampton, Massachusetts residents still broadly support the construction of a city-owned municipal fiber broadband network, city officials are celebrating the arrival of Gateway Fiber which will soon be delivering a more affordable fiber option, and more broadband competition, to the traditionally underserved city. Gateway Fiber recently unveiled plans to deliver multi-gigabit speeds to large swaths of the city. The company, which will finance the entirety of the build, says it’s already invested $3 million in the project so far.
LUS Fiber Brings Popular Broadband Service Into Church Point, Louisiana
Louisiana’s only publicly-owned broadband provider says it’s expanding access into nearby Church Point, bringing affordable fiber access to the town of nearly 4,200 residents. LUS Fiber was awarded a $21 million grant to expand fiber outside of Lafayette as part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP).
California Announces Another $207 Million In Last Mile Broadband Grants
California’s $2 billion Last Mile Federal Funding Account Grant Program (FFA) has announced another $207 million in new broadband grants across Amador, Los Angeles, and Solano Counties. According to the state’s announcement, $61 million in new grants were awarded by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for five Last Mile FFA broadband infrastructure grant projects in Amador and Solano Counties, bringing affordable fiber Internet access to approximately 10,000 Californians.