Spray-painted in ones and zeroes, the writing on the wall for the post-industrial age arguably appeared with the first consumer-level personal computers in 1971. A decade later came the first IBM PC, a much more popular machine.
The Internet, a vast decentralized web of redundant networks multiplied by its connected nodes, has experienced continued growth in the subsequent decades. The information age continues its expansion, now spread largely through high-speed broadband service.
“This is critical infrastructure,” says Ulster County comptroller March Gallagher. “It’s vitally important.”
Long a New York state goal, hundred percent coverage of high-speed Internet to every corner of Ulster County has been elusive. To map the existing coverage and to identify where it falls short, the county comptroller’s office has worked closely with the county planning and information services departments.
A Citizens Commission for Digital Inclusion was convened back in May. “The commission worked to create a broadband map,” says Gallagher, “which we put out for public comment on the county website, and we received feedback from the community over the summer. So we have a pretty robust map. We’ve actually identified eleven hundred unserved addresses.”
The bulk are in Wawarsing (390), Shandaken (198), and Denning (186). A few hundred more of the afflicted are scattered across the county: Saugerties and Woodstock. Marbletown and Hurley. Olive and Hardenburgh.
An accurate local accounting is at this time highly desirable, Federal Communications Commission broadband connectivity maps have been released for public viewing. Billions of dollars of state and federal funds will be available to places where the federal map doesn’t line up with the experience on the ground.
“The FCC is talking around $46 billion for broadband,” says Gallagher, “but there’s more than that, because the state has money tied up, also.”
The county planning department has been keeping a watchful eye on the situation. “We’ve been monitoring all of the available funding associated with it,” reports planning director Dennis Doyle. “And we’ve been making sure that the county and others are aware of where the broadband is.”
Asked to estimate the total mileage of cable unspooled across Ulster County, Doyle laughs.
“There’s 454 center-line miles of county road,” says Doyle. He lists the routes along which the cable runs. “There’s some 180 to 200 miles of state road, and there’s about 1200 lane-miles of local roads. Assuming that probably 95 percent of it is covered, there’s a lotta cable out there.”
New York State ranks second state in the nation behind Connecticut in providing the highest percentage of broadband to its population. And Ulster ranks in the top ten for coverage within counties in the state.
“I think, surprisingly, there was more cable out there than what you originally thought would be out there,” says Doyle. “But when we look at the unserved areas, we looked at the number of structures done, the state broadband mapping, I think we came up with somewhere in the neighborhood of over 2000 structures, and I’m talking to residents, that were unserved. People have gone out and actually driven the roads and looked at the areas [which said] there was cabling there where there wasn’t.”
The FCC coverage maps are also getting a lookover from the state. Gallagher emphasizes the importance of private residents without access making sure the FCC map accurately reflects the reality, and filing challenges if the map shows access where none exists.
“In most of Ulster County, the provider that’s available is Spectrum,” says Doyle. “And in southern Ulster County and then around the areas of Marlborough, there’s some Verizon service. That’s high-speed [fiber optic] Verizon service, not copper wire. And then Margaret Telephone Company comes in on very western portions of the county in Denning and Hardenburgh.”
Gallagher too is urging people who are in those areas that don’t have broadband to make sure the map shows they don’t have broadband. “Those struggling to connect to the Internet and need help filing a challenge can contact our office,” she says. “I’m certain that we’ll meet the deadline for the bulk challenge, but we understand from New York State, they feel it is way more powerful for there to be concurrently a state challenge, a county challenge, and individual property owners to make sure that they’re represented on the map write into challenge if they’re not.”
There’s not much time left. The window to file a challenge closes on January 13, 2023. After that, the funds will be distributed to places indicated on the FCC map.
“Our goal is to make sure that every single house and business, every single structure is served for our county,” says Gallagher. “And when people say to me, well, it’s really expensive …. Well, you know what else is really expensive? Rural electrification. And no one in their right mind would say Denning shouldn’t have electricity.”
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