ALBANY COUNTY – As internet service has become essential for modern American life, sparsely settled areas struggle for access. Twenty-eight percent of rural Americans lack broadband.

In Albany County, that percentage can be much lower in rural places. Dorothy Verch, who chairs a broadband committee in the Helderberg Hilltown of Westerlo, for example, estimates that only a third of the town’s residents have internet access. And this includes satellite dishes as well as “Wi-Fi hotspots” in which a cell service provides a strong enough signal for internet service.

“We take this seriously,” said Sue Hoadley who manages Westerlo’s library where residents come even when the library is closed to access internet from the parking lot or patio where USB ports were installed.

“It’s a real problem here that many people are blocked from access for economic reasons … much less if they are in an area where nothing is provided,” said Hoadley.

“You can’t apply for Medicare now without it,” said Marty Newell, chief operating officer of the Center for Rural Strategies. “We are recognizing the utility — and I use that word purposefully — of broadband in providing essential services to the population.”

The fight over whether broadband should be classified as a telecommunication (utility) service or an information service has been going on in the nation’s capital for well over a decade, if not longer, according to Jonathan Schwantes, a senior policy counsel at the Consumers Union.

But, Schwantes said, it really comes down to the debate over net neutrality and whether or not the government should have the authority to regulate the internet.

In New York State, the Public Service Commission last month revoked its approval of the 2016 merger agreement between Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable because Charter, doing business as Spectrum, had, among other promised benefits, skirted its obligations to serve rural communities.

Spectrum had been required, as part of the conditions of the merger, to expand its services to 145,000 new units that were either unserved or underserved (meaning lacking in quality broadband), according to an order from the state’s Public Service Commission.

The company failed to meet its first goal of 36,250 units in 2017; it later failed its revised goal of 36,771 after the state disqualified many with addresses “in densely populated urban cities including New York City,” according to the PSC document. Charter maintains it met these goals.

The late Peter Henner, a lawyer practicing in the rural Clarksville area of New Scotland, was working on making sure New Scotland was at the top of that list.

Those expansions never took place because Spectrum decided that it was less expensive to pay the fines for not expanding than to extend service, said Adam Greenberg, a New Scotland councilman. Part of Peter Henner’s lawsuit was to get the exact number of users from Verizon or Time Warner since those companies said maintained the numbers are private and not to be shared.

“The fact is,” said Greenberg, “and statistics bear this out, economic development happens where you have broadband — and is stunted where you don’t.”

A town, on its own, according to Greenberg, doesn’t have much leverage because cable companies are not required to negotiate on their franchise agreements. The PSC sets standards that franchise agreements have to meet, and there’s no reason for a company to negotiate anything better than that with the town. In New Scotland, and in much of the Hilltowns, that means that most rural areas don’t qualify because there aren’t enough houses within a mile to meet the standards.

The standards have been in place for decades, when cable television was expanding, long before the internet existed. Not having cable television growing up was OK, Greenberg said. “But internet is a much different beast,” he said. And the fact that the standard hasn’t been updated, and that state and federal governments have not pushed enough for expansion leaves rural municipalities without leverage.

Congressman Paul Tonko has sponsored an act that is meant to help the various agencies dealing with internet funding and establishment to better communicate with each other.

Filling the void in rural areas are new technologies such as upgrading satellite internet                                                                                                                                                                                             

In  2015, high-speed internet service was defined as a utility, when the Federal Communications Commission approved the policy known as net neutrality, which is the principle that all traffic on the internet should be treated equally.

Classified as a telecommunications, or Title II, service, broadband was  regulated like a telephone service, which is to say, the FCC would have more oversight of a provider’s pricing and actions. As an information, or Title I, service, broadband is lightly regulated like Google.

By treating broadband as a Title II service, Schwantes said, the government has “stronger tools in [its] toolbox” to ensure consumers aren’t harmed by unfair practices, for example, blocking websites. Schwantes’s organization, Consumers Union, is a not-for-profit dedicated to unbiased product testing, consumer-oriented research, public education, and advocacy. The Consumers Union publishes Consumer Reports magazine.

In December 2017, the FCC, now under the control of Republicans, voted to repeal the 2015 regulation, again reclassifying broadband — which was classified as a telecommunications service — as an information service.

Schwantes said there are three ways that broadband can again be reclassified as a telecommunications service:

— The FCC can reclassify it, which is unlikely because the agency is led by Republicans;

—Litigation currently in federal court could force reclassification; or

— Congress can make it law, which won’t happen in an election year.

Newell, from the Center for Rural Strategies, said that the House and Senate had undertaken a Congressional Review Act on the FCC’s net neutrality decision. The review acts allows Congress to reverse a regulatory action with a simple majority vote in the House and Senate.

In May, the Senate, narrowly controlled by Republicans, voted, 52 to 47, to overturn the FCC’s decision, but the House, which has a greater GOP majority, doesn’t have the 218 votes it needs to overturn the decision.

And internet service providers can’t be relied on to extend service.

Internet service providers, Schwantes said, “talk out of both sides of their mouth.” Providers will complain that too much regulation hinders their ability to deploy to rural areas, but, Schwantes said, “We find that, whether they’re regulated or not,” internet service providers are not moving into rural areas, because there is no economic incentive to do so.

“Now that they’re deregulated, I remain skeptical that they’re suddenly going to [deploy to rural areas],” Schwantes said.

This kind of deregulation, according to Newell, allows telecom giants to stifle competition.

“It’s the reason why AT&T probably has more lobbyists at any given session of most legislatures than anybody else,” he said, adding an example from his own state. “The Kentucky Ledge, sometimes has a one-to-one ratio, paid lobbyists to legislators — they’re not full time of course, but they turn them out because there are a number of threats to their business model.”

If broadband were classified as a telecommunication service, and not an information service, then a “universal service fund” could be used to extend access. The Communications Act of 1934 required that all Americans have access to affordable, basic telephone service. To do so, the American Telephone and Telegraph charged a fee on its long-distance service to subsidize service to low-income households and high-cost rural areas.

Newell said that the universal service fund has been extended to broadband service in high-cost areas and to another program he called “lifeline,” which started out as a way to help poor people afford phones, “and was expanded not that long ago by the FCC to include broadband service.” But the current FCC, according to Newell, is looking to cut back and restrict the programs.

It’s resisting modernizing the eligibility-verification process, he said. “Rather than go with a modern verifier, they’ve chosen to say that, ‘It’s broken and we’d like to not do it anymore.’”

New technology

“Technology is opening up new things,” Newell said. “Fixed wireless [internet access via radio waves], five years ago would not have been an option, but now you can jump over some great distances and get a service that meets the FCC definition of broadband.”

Bundling broadband installation along with other utility work, like road building, could allow for more access, Newell said.

A majority of residences that will receive broadband internet through the state’s New NY Broadband Program, which partly funds broadband expansion with grants, will be receiving internet through Hughes Network Systems, LLC, also known as HughesNet, a satellite-internet company. Of the 131,134 units being funded in Phase III (the final phase which was announced in March), HughesNet took 76,873, or over half the units; every county served in Phase III will include the company.

The company, however, does not even coming close to the most funding or total cost, which was easily taken by Verizon Communications with an $85 million state grant funding the nearly $150 million in total costs. HughesNet has just under $30 million in total costs with about half covered by a state grant.

Likewise, in Albany County, HughesNet will be covering the majority of new units receiving broadband through the state program, particularly in the rural Helderberg Hilltowns, where internet access has long been an issue.

Verch, the chairwoman of the Broadband Research Committee in Westerlo, was puzzled why HughesNet is receiving the “lion’s share” of residences, with over 1,000 of the 1,200 units getting broadband going to the Maryland-based company.

HughesNet has been around in different forms since the 1930s, when Howard Hughes — the American filmmaker, business magnate, and pilot — formed an aircraft company; HughesNet established a broadband satellite system in the late 1990s.

Satellite internet can transmit signals in places that are isolated or hard to reach. The wireless connection involves three satellite dishes: One in space, a second at the internet provider’s hub, and a third at the recipient’s property.

Peter Gulla, the senior vice president of marketing at HughesNet, said that the final round of grants was directed at the most rural and hard-to-reach areas in the state.

“By its very nature, that means that other providers can’t cost effectively provide the service,” he said, adding that the home density makes it not viable for other providers.

“This is why satellite is the perfect solution,” he said.

Satellite internet had a reputation for poor connections but over the years companies like HughesNet and ViaSat have increased their internet speed. However, latency — the time it takes for information to reach a device and be returned — remains hundreds of times slower in satellite systems than with fiber-cable internet. It is most noticeable in more interactive programs such as video chats, gaming online, and monitoring the stock market.

Gulla said that internet speeds have improved over the years, going from 10 to 15 megabits-per-second download speed to 25 megabits-per-second, which is required now by both New York State and the Federal Communications Commission.

He said that video chatting is possible with the newer technology, but advised that online gaming (save for something like turn-based games) is not possible with satellite internet due to its high latency.

One means of eliminating this problem is bringing multiple satellites to a lower orbit around the planet, known as Low Earth Orbit satellites, rather than the traditional method of a larger satellite in a higher orbit. This is being considered by tech giants like SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Facebook.

OneWeb is such a company. With investors like billionaire Richard Branson, OneWeb intends to use 800 satellites rotating Earth at a low orbit. HughesNet has gotten — literally — on the ground floor with the company, said Gulla. The company is working on OneWeb’s ground infrastructure, specifically on how to set up “gateway” sites, he said. The agreement was made last year with a $190 million contract.

Currently, HughesNet has two satellites orbiting above the United States, offering service across the country — the newest one was launched in late 2016. The satellites are described as geostationary, and remain in place about 22,000 miles above Earth. Low Earth Orbit satellites are about 300 to 900 miles above the planet.

According to Gulla, the goal of the Low Earth Orbit satellites is to provide internet access worldwide, but he believes that the two types of satellites could complement each other.

Gulla believes that HughesNet will continue to increase its users; the company began at 30,000 users and now has 1.2 million.

“There’s no escaping that the internet is now part of your life … ,” he said. “There’s more devices than ever … .”

He said that those eligible through New York’s program will have a satellite dish installed for free and will then be charged a monthly fee that will be determined by the state’s program.

On the ground

Besides satellite internet, traditional cables as well as wireless internet with a ground-mounted base are also being installed in the Hilltowns. Two companies expanding broadband access in Westerlo are Mid-Hudson Data Corp., also known as Mid-Hudson Cable, and the Middleburgh Telephone Company, also known as MidTel. Mid-Hudson Cable, which is based in Catskill and offers broadband through most of the Hudson Valley, has a franchise agreement with the town and has been working with Verch and the committee for some time to lay cable in town.

Mid-Hudson Cable started in the 1970s to bring television to areas where it hadn’t been accessible, said David Fingar, the company’s chief engineer. “TV is beginning to phase out … ,” said Fingar. “Instead of being focused on television, we’re focused on the internet.

“We have expanded into any area were we could find at least 20 houses in a mile,” he said. With funds from the state, that amount could be less, he said.

The Phase III expansion needs to be completed by the end of 2019, he said. The company is currently working on getting permission from electric companies to string cable on their power lines, he said.

Fingar said that he is not worried about satellite internet as a competitor.

“Most of the packages that they offer have a data cap … ,” he said. “We don’t do that.”

In Albany County, the majority of state-funded expansions with MidTel are in Berne and Rensselaerville, but Verch hopes to expand their reach into Westerlo with the help of state Assemblyman Chris Tague, whose district stretches into the rural southern tip of the county.

Verch said that Mid-Hudson Cable is the only cable-based internet provider in town, save for some who possibly receive Spectrum internet on the borders of the towns of Berne and Coeymans.

In Berne, the internet providers expanding broadband in the program are more evenly divided than in Westerlo. While HughesNet again leads with 337 residences out of over 500 homes, MidTel is receiving the most money in Berne in order to expand to 165 homes; another 22 homes will be covered by Hudson Valley Wireless, a company which transmits broadband internet via signals sent from a ground-mounted base to satellite dishes.

Implementing wireless internet in the Hilltowns with Hudson Valley Wireless was announced by Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy last March. Former Berne Supervisor Kevin Crosier had championed the service as a way to make the Hilltowns equal to other areas in terms of education and business growth.

The company’s general manager Jason Guzzo told The Enterprise last year that rural areas like the Hilltowns were of interest to the company because of their isolation.

“So, basically, the areas where the cable companies don’t provide service. Those are the area we’re interested in,” he said at the time. “The community needs access to high-speed internet, and typically it doesn’t meet the economic model of the wireline providers.”

Guzzo said that wireless internet, while offering a similar setup to satellite internet, operates at a faster speed due its ground-mounted base. Latency as well as interruptions due to weather are not issues as with satellite internet.

At a Berne Town Board meeting on Aug. 8, Supervisor Sean Lyons noted that Hudson Valley Wireless would be offering internet near the southern end of Berne, while MidTel would cover areas near Rensselaerville and Schoharie County. Lyons wasn’t sure about the placement of HughesNet in Berne, but commented that the company was serving a large number of residences.

“It’s finally looking like it’s going to happen for us all here,” he said.

Tonko’s act

Last week, Congressman Paul Tonko was in New Scotland to discuss high-speed internet access, and how local municipalities can get more of it.

He had met with town supervisors months ago, he told The Enterprise, and broadband was a top concern for them. At the Aug. 7 meeting, were the representatives from Schodack, Duanesburg, Stillwater, Coeymans, Rotterdam, Berne, New Scotland, and Albany and Rensselaer counties.

There are a number of problems, Tonko said, associated with not having access to broadband; from quality-of-life to essential needs, Tonko said, “We want to do something about it.”

Tonko’s act, the ACCESS BROADBAND Act, is a long acronym: Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Business Resources, Opportunities, Access and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand. It will streamline a number of things, the Democratic Congressman said.

Currently, different agencies receive funds to implement rural broadband, and those agencies, according to Tonko, don’t communicate well with each other; this act will coordinate that communication.

According to Tonko’s office:

– A November 2017 Census Bureau survey compiled and reported by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 86 percent of American households use wired broadband at home;

– Approximately 7 percent of Americans lack access to fixed 25 Mbps/3 Mbps broadband (this is the FCC definition of broadband); and

– Twenty-eight percent of rural Americans lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps.

In New York State, 81.7 percent of households have a broadband internet subscription, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, part of the United States Department of Commerce.

The current FCC standard uses census tract data to determine if there is broadband service in an area, Tonko said, but the data is skewed because, if one person in a census tract is served then, according to the FCC, all are served.

“This one served, all served concept is flawed,” Tonko said. In some of the rural areas that he represents, Tonko said, the FCC standard does not accurately assess access. The FCC standard and its implementation has moved from the FCC to the NTIA, and Tonko wants to work on reforming the standard.

Also, with his act, Tonko is looking to provide assistance to communities and small businesses to address what best fits that community or business.