The Buildout: New York commits $70M to public broadband

The state of New York awarded more than $70 million through the ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure Grant program for projects that will connect more than 25,000 homes and businesses. The funding will allow municipalities to build 800 miles of public broadband infrastructure to connect underserved upstate regions. As a press release from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's office explains, infrastructure funded through the 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." Funding recipients by region/project in this round include the city of Syracuse for its Surge Link network, which first launched last year ($10.8 million, connecting 13,000 locations); Livingston County, for its Light Up Livingston project, in partnership with ISP Empire Access ($26.5 million, 4,000 locations); Franklin County and the Development Authority of the North Country (DANC), in partnership with ISP SlicFiber ($2.4 million, 1,600 locations); Southern Tier Network, in partnership with ISP FiberSpark ($18.2 million, 4,200 locations); the village and town of Sherburne and town of Columbus, for the Sherburne Connect network, in partnership with FiberSpark and FyberCom ($6.9 million, 500 locations); and the towns of Dryden and Caroline, for the Dryden Fiber project ($8.9 million; 2,600 locations). Funding for the ConnectALL program comes from the US Treasury Department's capital projects fund, via the American Rescue Plan. Read more here.