ALBANY COUNTY — While progress in providing all county residents access to broadband internet is inevitably painstaking, both Albany County and the town of Rensselaerville have taken important steps this week to get people connected. 

At its Dec. 18 meeting, the county legislature unanimously authorized the creation of a broadband special project coordinator to help manage broadband-related funding and partner with local municipalities, guiding their own efforts in the difficult work of connecting residents to the internet. 

Meanwhile, the Rensselaerville Broadband Committee told the town board at its Dec. 14 meeting that it has identified obstacles and opportunities for the town in obtaining funding, after spending the year gathering local connectivity data and meeting with internet service providers, state lawmakers, and other key figures, like County Executive Daniel McCoy and representatives from the state’s broadband office, for guidance. 

Although each of these steps is preliminary in the grand scheme of achieving connectivity — Westerlo began lobbying for nearly $1.7 million in federal funding in 2021, and, after being awarded that money in 2022, is expecting actual construction to begin the summer of 2024 — it’s still a flurry of activity for an area where work is generally being carried out by volunteers and part-time government officials. 

“I know there’s been a lot of frustration that there hasn’t been any activity [and] that we hadn’t known of funding opportunities in particular,” committee member Hans Soderquist told the Rensselaerville Town Board at the beginning of his annual report. 

According to a fact sheet created by the broadband committee, about half of Rensselaerville’s households don’t have broadband access. This equates to more than 1,800 residents, the sheet says. 

Broadband is considered the gold standard for internet connection because, since it relies on a physical connection, it’s more stable than service provided through a satellite, which is especially spotty in the extreme topography of the Hilltowns. The third means of connection — cellular — is often expensive and does not offer the same speed as broadband, while also being subject to provider-imposed data caps. 

But because broadband relies on that cabled connection, deployment is more difficult since it requires more local infrastructure that, particularly in low-density areas, is not seen by internet-service providers as a cost-worthy investment, putting the burden on small towns. 

Committee member Kathryn Sikule told the Rensselaerville board that, after meeting with Midtel and Mid-Hudson Cable — the area’s two broadband providers — they learned that the cost-per-mile for laying cable could be up to $20,000, but that fees related to using telephone poles could raise it to $60,000. 

“And they also have to wait up to a year-and-a-half to get a permit,” she added. 

The fact sheet explains that broadband companies are “usually the last company to put a wire on the pole,” and have to take steps to preserve the wires and accouterments of various other companies, which are not liable to cover those costs. Licensing fees are required even when no wires are on a pole, it says. 

And, because of taxes and other requirements placed on providers that receive grant money for expansion, providers are still constrained by a sense of cost-effectiveness when deciding whether to apply for grants, the sheet says. 

Soderquist told the board that the committee has instead identified three potential sources of funding that will allow the town to own the material and choose its service provider — which, he hopes, will bring costs down through competition. 

The first source is the New York State Municipal Infrastructure Program. 

“What we know about this program, and what is attractive about this program, is that the work would have to be done by 2026,” Soderquist said. “So, it’s not exactly a fast-track program but it is one where they describe that the money will be available.”

The requirements for that grant program have not been published yet, Soderquist said, but should be known soon. 

The second source is the state’s ConnectALL program, which, through the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, is awarding money to a variety of broadband-related initiatives, including expansion projects.

That funding, Soderquist said, seems to be moving on a longer timeline, “and we have some concerns about that.” He assumes that that money will be granted according to current levels of availability, which is why the committee had taken efforts to get its own local data. 

Soderquist said the town’s current connection rate of about 50 percent is “atrociously low.”

“We continue to try to get the attention of state and county officials, let them know we are interested and make sure we are ready to take some kind of action when we know there’s an opportunity,” he said.

Finally, the town can also try to get money through the Albany County’s American Rescue Plan Act funds — federal money meant to deal with fallout from the pandemic — which are what are being used to pay the county’s new special-project coordinator position. 

According to the legislature’s resolution authorizing that position, the county has $29.6 million in ARPA funds, and authorized $404,382 from now until Dec. 31, 2026 for the position. 

While Rensselaerville hopes to get actual funds from the county, it can expect to receive help through this position. 

The job description says that the coordinator, in addition to working with the county executive on the use of county resources for expansion, will “lead broad-band focused partnership opportunities with partners including local municipalities, community-based organizations, libraries, educational institutions, and private companies,” among other things.

Rensselaerville’s broadband committee told the town board it would need a resolution or some other affirmation of commitment from the town about solving its broadband problem to make itself competitive for funding.

“What everyone has said to us along the way, from the state to all the way down the chain, is that they need an expression of support from the town council,” committee member Carol Ash, who is also a trustee on the board of the Carey Institute for Global Good, said, explaining that it was particularly necessary for internet-service providers.

“They need to know … there’s a groundswell of support from the town board, that we are in recognition that 50 percent of this town is not being served, and our chances of getting [served] are pretty much running out,” she said. 

Soderquist said a resolution wouldn’t be a commitment of any kind, nor specific to any one source of funding. 

“It is broadly about getting this problem solved,” he said. “I know we have a commitment to doing that, but the ISPs [internet service providers] don’t have that commitment in writing, the state broadband office doesn’t have that commitment in writing. So this is something that they’ve noted helps them understand we’re ready to move forward.”

The town board expects to have the resolution ready in January.