$212 million in New NY Broadband Program Round II grants have been awarded to projects across Upstate New York. Together with existing New York State commitments, Round II grant awards will ensure that 98 percent of New Yorkers have access to the high-speed broadband required to succeed in a 21st century economy. DFT Communications was awarded $4.274M under the New NY Broadband Grant Program. The $5.343M overall project, which includes DFT’s $1.068M private investment, will bring fiber optic based broadband services with up to 1Gbps in speed to approximately 973 homes and businesses passing another 1,287 homes and businesses in the towns of Arkwright, Charlotte, Pomfret, Sheridan, Stockton, and a section of the City of Dunkirk by the lake.

The state’s $500M New NY Broadband Grant Program was put in place last year to help bring broadband services capable of at least 25Mbps to underserved homes and businesses in the state. Grant awardees are required to have the network completed and operational by year-end 2018, with customer installations happening during the ongoing construction and continuing for up to 24 months.

Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner Howard Zemsky said, “The New NY Broadband Program is successfully implementing the Governor’s vision for a fully connected Empire State. The Round II grants announced today will drive hundreds of millions of dollars in state and private investment to deploy projects that will bring broadband to businesses, schools and communities, all of which need high-speed internet to compete in global economy.”

Empire State Development Executive Vice President of Broadband and Innovation Jeffrey Nordhaus said, “We congratulate DFT on their Round II award of the New NY Broadband Program. DFT is helping the State of New York advance Governor Cuomo’s ambitious Broadband for All initiative. We applaud their effort in positioning New York State as a leader in providing high-quality broadband service to rural communities in need”

DFT’s grant was the 12th largest award in Round 2 of the reverse auction process. Round 2 awards yielded a total of 25 different service providers covering 53 projects, totaling $212M in grant money and $56M in company matching funds, for an overall investment amount of $266.9M in upgrades. The grant awards ranged from $226,000 to $47.8M, and will help bring broadband services capable of 100Mbps (minimum of 25Mbps in the rural areas) to over 89,000 homes and businesses that otherwise would have no service or minimal Internet speeds.

DFT Communications President & COO Mark R. Maytum publicly thanked the governor and New York State Broadband Program Office for their assistance and efforts in helping bring the broadband grant program to reality. “We are ecstatic to receive this grant to help further deploy fiber broadband services to the rural areas we serve. The people living and working in these areas deserve the same level of service as those living in urban and suburban areas of the state!” Maytum went on to say, “This is an exciting opportunity for our company and the people in this region, and we are very appreciative of the efforts from the NYS Broadband Program Office, our state legislators, and Governor Cuomo’s office in making this happen.”

DFT Director of Carrier Sales & Services Wade Levan added, “The economics of bringing fiber based broadband services to rural areas is extremely challenging due to the long return on investment time (fewer homes and businesses available to recoup the huge investment cost), and without this type of assistance from the state the rural areas would lag further behind. The Governor and legislators clearly understand the reality and have stepped up in a huge way to transform the upstate rural economy.”

Senator Catharine Young said, “Expanding broadband services to rural areas is a key component to economic growth, because it is transforming the way citizens, schools, hospitals, public safety, emergency services, businesses and municipalities efficiently interact. Connecting underserved rural areas and municipalities can be a meticulous, time-consuming, and expensive undertaking, but it is a necessary investment for our future. I have consistently championed access to broadband and state funding to advance connectivity. We successfully passed $500 million for the New NY Broadband Grant Program in last year’s budget. My congratulations to the Maytum Family and DFT Communications on securing this grant award. This state funding will help DFT continue to expand broadband access and improve people’s quality of life.”

“Congratulations to DFT for their pursuit of the New NY Broadband Program Round II grant!” Dunkirk’s Mayor Rosas said. “DFT has been an exemplary community leader when it comes to working with the various state agencies in order to better serve our community. The funding that will be provided through this grant will help to ensure job growth, economic development, education and community development by bringing broadband services to the underserved homes and businesses in our area.” The Mayor continued, “By providing this grant funding, advanced broadband will support current and future safety and government communication systems. The residents and business owners within the City of Dunkirk will reap the rewards of the efforts put forth by DFT, and I personally thank the Maytum family and their team for a job well done.”

DFT expects to finalize permits and necessary grant agreements by mid-2017. Construction of the network will then begin with services starting to be available in late 2017 and project completion by the end of 2018. At that point, company personnel will be reaching out to the homes and businesses in their Round 2 award areas to provide updated information.

As DFT begins working on its Round 2 project, they will also be reviewing eligible Round 3 locations. As part of the announcement on February 28, 2017 the Governor and the NYS Broadband Program Office also officially announced the opening of Round 3, which encompasses another 300,000+ eligible homes and businesses. Applications for Round 3 need to be completed and submitted by November 30th, with award announcements expected in early 2018. DFT is currently reviewing the eligible census blocks to determine what areas it may apply for in Round 3.

About the New NY Broadband Grant Program

The Program is designed to ensure that New York’s most remote communities receive the high-speed broadband Internet they need and deserve. The Program supports the deployment of advanced technologies to achieve the Governor’s goal of providing New Yorkers with access to internet download speeds of at least 100 Mbps in most places, and 25 Mbps in the most remote parts of the state, by the end of 2018.

Award recipients were selected through a “reverse-auction” methodology, which prioritizes bidders seeking the lowest amount of state investment per new household served. In order to avoid cost duplication, the Time Warner Cable-Charter merger footprint was excluded from Round 2. This exclusion enabled the New York State Broadband Program Office to operate with a highly targeted scope and design an innovative auction process across the state, while preserving state funds.