NY pols announce $228.2M in funding for municipal broadband, open call for project applications

While the NTIA BEAD program continues to make headlines in this first month of 2024, don’t forget about the Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund: New York state sure hasn’t, as Governor Kathy Hochul and NY Senator and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, together with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, today announced that the Empire State has been awarded $228.2 million from the Cap Projects pot to launch its ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure program, an effort designed to fund last-mile broadband infrastructure to “thousands” of locations.

In addition, the pols announced that the request for applications for those seeking to be awarded the funding and actually install the broadband is now open on the NY state development website. Here are the links provided:

This Request for Applications (“RFA”) is posted on the Empire State Development website: https://broadband.ny.gov/municipal-infrastructure-program

Applications must be submitted through the New York State Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) Portal: https://apps.cio.ny.gov/apps/cfa/index.cfm

And those seeking to apply would do well to check out the New York ConnectALL checklist here.

As noted in the press release from the governor’s office, the money is being earmarked specifically for last-mile fiber and it will be owned by public entities, though it can be leased out to private ISPs for their networks.

“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 ConnectALL program, a $1 billion total effort, was unveiled by Hochul two years ago to the month and has already spent $10 million on a wave of small pilot programs that seem to have been a success. These include:

“…broadband projects in four upstate communities:

  1. The Village of Sherburne in Chenango County

  2. The Town of Nichols in Tioga County

  3. The Town of Diana in Lewis County

  4. Town of Pitcairn in St. Lawrence County.

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.”

According to Broadband.Money’s nationwide Audit tool, a surprising 30.4% of New York State is either unserved or underserved by broadband internet access (defined as lacking speeds of 25/3 mpbs down/up and 100/20 mbps, respectively) — nearly 1/3 of the state’s total broadband serviceable locations.

As the Broadband.Money Audit notes: “Of the 4,821,814 broadband serviceable locations in New York, 144,075 are unserved and 1,320,810 are underserved.”

And the areas with the most unserved/underserved locations aren’t all in upstate rural NY either — the Bronx, a New York City borough, and well-off Westchester County just north of the city, both have higher percentages of un or underserved locales.

Let’s hope the newly awarded fund$ are put to work connecting all those, as the plan’s name would indicate.