The Buildout: New York gets millions for muni broadband

The US Treasury Department this week approved $228 million in capital projects funds for New York, which the state will use to launch its ConnectAll Municipal Infrastructure Program. In a press release, New York Governor Kathy Hochul's office said the funding will connect "tens of thousands of homes statewide." That's in addition to more than 3,000 homes in four upstate communities already connected with municipal fiber infrastructure via pilot projects, led by the New York Power Authority, completed in December 2023. Those projects, which were launched in 2022, leveraged $10 million in ConnectAll grants to deliver open access broadband service to 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. The funding announced this week by the Treasury Department will be awarded through the state's Municipal Infrastructure Program (MIP) to "municipalities, non-profits, and other entities to construct open and accessible public broadband infrastructure," said the state. New York initially launched its $1 billion ConnectAll program in January 2022, with a mix of state and federal funds. In addition to existing federal funding, New York is set to receive $664.6 million through the NTIA's Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.

AT&T this week announced completion of its fiber buildout in Boonville, Indiana, bringing service to 4,000 new locations in the region. The $4.4 million project was a public-private partnership with the county, for which AT&T was awarded $1 million from the county's share of American Rescue Plan funding. In a press release, AT&T said that as of Q3 2023 it has brought fiber to more than 570,000 locations across the state. On an earnings call this week, the company's CEO, John Stankey, said AT&T will continue to focus more on fiber deployments than pushing fixed wireless. "We made a conscious choice as a company that we want to dedicate capital to invest in fiber, which we believe is a more sustainable long-term means to deal with stationary and fixed broadband needs," he said.

Charter's Spectrum this week said it launched services for roughly 770 homes and businesses in rural parts of Ray County, Missouri. The company also launched services for 1,200 homes and businesses in Anderson County, Texas; as well as 1,900 homes and businesses across Benzie County, Michigan. All three builds are part of the company's commitments through the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). Spectrum is investing $5 billion over several years to build out broadband infrastructure in the rural US, with $1.2 billion of that awarded through the RDOF auction.

Ziply announced new construction and service launches this week. The company has launched services for roughly 100 addresses in Loomis, Washington; and 200 addresses in Brewster, Washington. Ziply was awarded grant funding toward both builds from the NTIA's Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP). Also this week, Ziply said it started construction to bring fiber to 8,500 addresses in Springfield, Oregon, with 900 already ready for service.

Comporium is continuing to launch fiber broadband services in rural parts of Lancaster County, South Carolina. In a press release this week, the company said it launched services for 79 additional addresses in "two very rural parts" of the county "during the final weeks of 2023." The cost of the buildout was $475,000, said Comporium. That's on top of 274 homes and businesses in Lancaster County announced by the company earlier this month. Comporium received state and federal funding for the Lancaster County build and was recently awarded an additional $51.9 million to connect 6,610 addresses in the state by the end of 2025.

GoNetspeed said this week that it will invest $6.6 million to build out a fiber network in Manchester, Connecticut. Construction will begin next month and the broadband network is expected to connect 10,700 locations once complete "as early as this spring," said the company. GoNetspeed is funded by Oak Hill Capital.

Another broadband provider funded by Oak Hill Capital, Metronet this week said its services are available for "initial construction areas" in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The company first started its construction in Grand Rapids in September 2022.