New York State has been awarded $228.2 million in federal funding to launch New York’s ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure Program and connect tens of thousands of homes statewide to high-speed broadband internet. In addition, Governor Hochul announced the completion of New York’s Municipal Infrastructure pilot projects connecting more than 3,000 homes in four upstate communities to high-speed internet.
Funding for ConnectALL’s Municipal Infrastructure Program has been awarded through the U.S. Department of the Treasury under the American Rescue Plan’s Capital Projects Fund. ConnectALL will make grants to public entities, local or Tribal governments, municipal utilities, utility cooperatives, and their private sector partners to construct new fiber to the premises for tens of thousands of properties statewide. Broadband infrastructure in the Municipal Infrastructure Program will be owned by a public entity or publicly controlled and Internet Service Providers will use the new broadband infrastructure to provide New Yorkers with affordable, high-quality service options. The request for applications is now available on the ConnectALL website.
The transformative investment follows the completion of the Municipal Infrastructure pilot projects, which demonstrated the transformative benefit of publicly-owned, open-access fiber optic networks. Open access networks can be used by multiple service providers, bringing consumer choice to underserved areas, and public ownership means broadband infrastructure is a basic utility available to all households in these communities. The pilot projects, led by the New York Power Authority, leveraged an initial $10 million investment from ConnectALL to fund municipal broadband projects in four upstate communities — the Village of Sherburne in Chenango County, the Town of Nichols in Tioga County, the Town of Diana in Lewis County and the Town of Pitcairn in St. Lawrence County. According to the state, as of December 2023, all four projects have been completed, connecting more than 3,000 households to high-speed internet at prices below the regional average.
