Local Investments in Rural Broadband Service Announced
By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
OTSEGO COUNTY
Some Otsego County residents with poor access to Internet service are expected to benefit from recently-announced investments in rural broadband. The April 27 announcement from Governor Kathy Hochul, Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and Representative Paul Tonko included three projects serving Otsego County, among others.
According to a state press release, the $542 million overall investment across rural communities in New York includes $287 million in federal funding, $7 million in state funding and $248 million in private sector funding from nine participating Internet service providers. The federal funding for these awards comes from $664.6 million that Congress allocated to New York State in 2023 as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. Next steps include submitting provisional awards for state and federal environmental review.
Three of those awards were said to assist, in part, Otsego County: CBN America LLC to serve 3,087 locations in seven area counties with fiber optic technology; IBT Group USA LLC to serve 5,478 locations in nine counties and the Oneida Indian Reservation with fixed wireless technology; and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to serve 14,877 locations in 37 counties and two Tribal Reservations with low Earth orbit satellite technology.
“New York State has led the way in making broadband affordable and welcomes the opportunity to move forward with our federal partners in implementing the BEAD program and bringing affordable, reliable and critical digital infrastructure to the unserved and underserved communities in New York,” Gov. Hochul said in a statement. “Closing the digital divide means ensuring that reliable, high-speed access reaches every household in the state—and that it remains affordable when it gets there. New York is showing the rest of the nation that both are possible through its landmark Affordable Broadband Act and commitment to reaching the final 1% of unserved or underserved households.”
According to state data from June 2025 prior to BEAD, Otsego County’s least well served areas are in the northeastern portion of the county. In particular, the Town of Roseboom’s population is about 98 percent unserved, according to state data. State law defines “unserved” as “any location which has no fixed wireless service or wired service with speeds of less than 25Mbps download available.”
Otsego County has also been making efforts to expand broadband access in partnership with the Mohawk Valley Economic Development District and the Vernonburg Group, a broadband services consulting company. The Otsego County Broadband Technical Assistance Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service, recently completed its yearlong project to assess issues and opportunities in the county.
The initiative progressed “through six structured phases that include stakeholder coordination, needs assessment, gap analysis, strategy development, public engagement, and final reporting” from May 2025 to April of this year, according to the project webpage. The Otsego County Planning and Solid Waste Department plans to release more details on final deliverables in the near future.
