New York State Is Trying To Make It Easier For Municipal Broadband To Succeed

New York State Capitol Empire State Plaza

In March, Charter Communications tried (and failed) to include a poison bill in New York State’s budget bill that would have hamstrung community broadband. In stark contrast, a New York legislator this month introduced new legislation he says would make it easier than ever for New York state municipal broadband projects to thrive.

State Senator Jeremy Cooney of Rochester has introduced the Broadband Deployment Assistance Act of 2024 (S9134), which would streamline the permitting process for municipal broadband projects by "amending the general municipal law, in relation to requiring substantially similar permits for broadband deployment to be processed together at the same time and on an expedited basis."

“With a quicker timeline and more efficient process for local governments, we can create affordable options for New Yorkers that empower them to take control of their digital destiny,” Cooney wrote in an editorial published at Syracuse.com.

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New York State Seal

Cooney says he was motivated by a lack of broadband competition in New York State. New York is dominated by Charter Communications, which was almost kicked out of the state in 2019 for poor service and  misleading regulators about broadband deployment conditions affixed to its 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable.

Charter enjoys a monopoly over next-generation broadband access in many New York towns and cities. Regional phone provider Verizon has also been consistently criticized for failing to consistently upgrade or repair its aging DSL services, and was sued by New York City in 2017 for failing to adhere to a fiber upgrade agreement with the city.

The lack of competition broadly results in spotty access, slow speeds, high prices, and substandard customer service for New York State residents. Data suggests that one million households throughout the Empire State lack home broadband service despite technically having access to it, usually due to the high cost of service.

Grass Roots Response To Monopoly Failure

In response to this market failure, numerous New York municipalities have embraced community broadband access and built their own fiber networks. That includes New York City, which considered building a massive open access fiber network until the project was scrapped by the Adams administration in favor of a cozier $90 million partnership with Charter.

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Sen Chuck Schumer at Dryden Fiber groundbreaking

Dryden, New York, for example, is currently in the process of building-out a citywide open access fiber network capable of delivering symmetrical gig speed broadband service to the city’s 14,500 residents.

The network is being funded by a combination of funding streams: bonds, a $2 million grant courtesy of federal COVID-19 disaster relief funding, an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) grant, and – eventually – subscriber revenues.

Locals there now have the option of numerous speed tiers that are far more affordable than the service being provided by the regional incumbent monopolies.

Users can get 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 – with no fees, caps, or long-term contracts.

Dryden’s ambitions have inspired communities all across the state, from Schoharie County to Jamestown.

Dryden Town Supervisor Jason Leifer told ILSR that while Cooney’s bill should be helpful to New York State municipal broadband efforts, many of the issues slowing down progress aren’t coming from the state government.

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Utility pole worker suspended in bucket truck

“There are other issues that also have to be addressed too,” Leifer said. “The bureaucratic hurdles are largely from the private sector and the utility pole make-ready process.”

Leifer noted that striking agreements with landlords can also prove time consuming, in part because regional monopolies like Charter have long struck favorable deals with property owners that sometimes either ban competitors outright, or ban competing ISPs from being able to advertise to building residents, something the federal government has been looking to remedy.

Hoping Historic Round Of Subsidies Ends Up In The Right Places

Cooney’s hopeful that with an historic flood of new broadband subsidies pouring into states across the country, his bill can expedite other efforts like the Dryden build.

“The lesson from past experiences is clear,” Cooney said. “We cannot rely on private providers alone to close the digital divide. We need to move on an aggressive timeline to expand competition wherever it’s needed. And any efforts to undermine or slow that progress must be stopped.”

Cooney’s bill comes as states continue to receive an historic wave of broadband subsidies thanks to 2021 Covid relief (the American Rescue Plan Act) and infrastructure legislation (the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). New York is poised to soon receive $664 million in BEAD (Broadband Equity Access And Deployment) funding made possible by the latter.

Many states have been funneling this massive federal cash infusion to regional monopolies with a long history of empty promises and the misuse of federal funds. Driven in part by past experiences with both Verizon and Charter, New York is trying a different tack, and hopes to drive a significant volume of this new funding to popular muni-broadband alternatives.

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NY ConnectALL logo

In 2022, New York state officials unveiled its ConnectALL program, a multi-tendriled billion-dollar project to dramatically boost broadband access across the state via a series of new grant programs, education initiatives, broadband mapping improvements, and diversity and equity proposals.

In January of 2024, the state unveiled a Municipal Infrastructure Grant Program and earmarked $228 million in ConnectALL funding to be specifically dedicated to help fund municipal broadband projects.

“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 announcement proclaimed.

Granted regional state monopolies like Verizon and Charter will still do everything in their power to ensure the lion’s share of this historic round of funding goes to them, and not community broadband – most recently exemplified by Charter’s failed attempt to insert a Trojan horse in a NY state budget bill that would have all but destroyed the viability of municipal broadband projects.

Whether Cooney’s Broadband Deployment Assistance Act passes the state legislature remains to be seen. Either way, state leaders will need to remain vigilant to ensure their vision of a muni-inclusive fix for the digital divide doesn’t wander off the rails.

Watch a video of a recent panel on the pilot programs that informed New York's Municipal Infrastructure Program below:

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Header image of New York State Capitol and Empire State Plaza courtesy of Darren McGee/New York State Governor’s Office

Inline images and map, including image of Sen. Chuck Schumer holding Dryden Fiber sign, courtesy of Dryden Fiber

Inline image of worker in utility bucket truck courtesy of RawPixel, CC0 1.0 UNIVERSAL Deed