$3.2M to bring broadband to last of unserved in Albany County
The Enterprise — Sean Mulkerrin
Congressman Paul Tonko speaks outside New Scotland Town Hall on Friday — while local officials sheltered by umbrellas listen — about an infusion of federal money that will be used to bring high-speed internet to 1,000 county residents.
NEW SCOTLAND — A cadre of local officials were on hand Friday morning in New Scotland to celebrate the last major swath of county residents without broadband access finally receiving access to high-speed internet.
Albany County is using $3.2 million of American Rescue Plan funding to provide access to 1,000 underserved addresses in Bethlehem, Berne, Coeymans, New Scotland, Rensselaerville, and Westerlo. More than 100 miles of fiber optic cable will be laid, according to the county.
When Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy was asked when residents could expect to see service, he said that, when service provider Mid-Hudson was asked the same question, the company said it had already started work.
“So as this is rolling out, as you see, they’re getting the poles up, they’re getting the fiber out there,” McCoy said. “You know, it takes a little bit of time, but we’ll be there.”
The county executive went on, “So hopefully in the next couple of months, we’ll wrap up the whole thing and we’ll continue to expand on the areas we can't get to because it does affect a lot of people.”
In New Scotland specifically, county spokeswoman Mary Rozak previously told The Enterprise, “There are 73 locations in the Town of New Scotland and they are primarily outside of the Village of Voorheesville in the more rural portions of the town” that will receive service.
Historically, areas with “regular service” typically have a density of at least 20 homes per mile, Supervisor Doug LaGrange explained to The Enterprise in September. A prior federal grant addressed many of the town’s “outlying areas,” LaGrange said, where density could be as low as two to three houses per mile.
The current challenge lay within what LaGrange described as “in-between areas,” such as New Scotland South Road, which has moderate housing density.
These areas are often “just enough under the limits” for commercial cable companies like Spectrum to justify expansion without significant cost but are also above the thresholds that qualified for earlier rural broadband grants.
