Internet access remains elusive luxury for 132,000 New York households

RENSSELAERVILLE — Claire Hardwick moved to this southern Albany County hilltown this summer from New York City. She hoped to work remotely in the bucolic community and care for a horse that was in her family. But when she moved in, she quickly realized the satellite-based internet could be used […]

RENSSELAERVILLE — Claire Hardwick moved to this southern Albany County hilltown this summer from New York City. She hoped to work remotely in the bucolic community and care for a horse that was in her family. But when she moved in, she quickly realized the satellite-based internet could be used only for a cursory Google search and little else.

So she decided to pay for broadband to service her residence.

But it wasn’t so simple. The infrastructure wasn’t there. And it would cost $10,000 plus a couple hundred dollars a month for the service. Stuck, she turned to an option that many in the small town have leaned on since the COVID-19 pandemic made remote work and learning an essential part of everyday society: the local public library. 

“Rensselaerville is not far from Albany,” Hardwick said. ”When you drive through the town, it looks and feels remote, but it’s actually not that remote. It’s not like a three-hour drive up into the middle of the Adirondacks. So, I really didn’t think internet was going to be an issue when I was deciding to move here.”

Yet the town has run into multiple problems with accessing broadband, including affording the service once it’s available.

The hilltown’s rural, rugged terrain makes installation expensive. The lack of population density also makes that more challenging for providers to get any return on their investment. And for years faulty federal maps have indicated the town had access to internet — but that was due to a Census glitch that checked off that box even if just one residence has the internet service that in this community has become as ubiquitous as electricity and telephone access. 

Some of the town’s struggles can be traced not only through the coronavirus pandemic but to more than 230 years ago, when Stephen van Rensselaer III enticed settlers to come to the rural region with the promise of “free” land as long it was maintained, farmed and the taxes paid. But the hilltown with roughly 1,800 residents remains sparsely populated and has struggled to build out its modern-day infrastructure, including high-speed internet service, without government subsidies. 

Nearly half of the residences in Rensselaerville remain unable to access broadband internet — leaving the 61-square-mile community less connected than most towns in the Adirondacks. Meanwhile, essentially every residence in the city of Albany has the ability to subscribe to broadband internet. 

New state data shows 2.5 percent of New York households lack the ability to hook up to the internet, a finding that offers the most granular look at online access to date and helps to fill gaps left by the U.S. Census data. The data point only accounts for addresses that do not have the infrastructure to access broadband, which excludes people who have the ability to access internet but cannot afford it. 

More than 132,000 households lack the ability to access broadband in New York. The town of Red House in Cattaraugus County is completely unserved. Twenty-nine towns, six school districts and four of the 10 tribal territories in the state have less than half of their residences with access to broadband, according to state data analyzed by the Times Union.

State and federal officials hope the answer to internet access for the forgotten or isolated parts of New York will come from the Biden administration’s $65 billion broadband initiative and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $1 billion “ConnectALL” initiative. 

Yet, despite the new state data and billions of promised federal funds, the path to broadband connectivity for the final 2.5 percent of New York remains unclear, according to many close to the issue.

Internet providers warn that government broadband grants may not be able to cover the costs of building the services in locations where there may be fewer than five homes per square mile. They also are tracking state legislation, which is currently the subject of litigation, that could require the providers to offer their services at very low prices without an offsetting government subsidy. 

But many communities continue waiting for broadband providers to decide whether they want to serve their areas. 

“We don’t have a magic wand to wave,” said Hans Soderquist, a Rensselaerville resident who chairs the town’s broadband committee. “It’s just a much bigger challenge, primarily economically, in an area like this.”

A wish upon Elon Musk’s ‘Starlink’

The main street through Rensselaerville on County Route 351 near Rensselaerville Library on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, in Rensselaerville, N.Y.
The main street through Rensselaerville on County Route 351 near Rensselaerville Library on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, in Rensselaerville, N.Y.Will Waldron/Times Union

For years, if any residence within a Census block had internet, the federal government considered the entire block as having internet. It’s left towns like Rensselaerville, with a few residences along its Main Street having internet access, ineligible for federal assistance to complete the expensive work in the rugged landscape. 

The math for fiber optic broadband providers didn’t add up for the low-density, hilly terrain without grant money. 

So, Soderquist and the broadband committee turned their attention to the sky. 

Starlink, an offshoot of Elon Musk’s Space X, promises high-speed internet access through its satellites. The primary requirement is a clear view of the Northern sky, installation of the satellite dish for the home, and for the service to be made available in the area. Services were quoted at around $600 for the equipment and $100 per month for access. 

“It’s unfortunate but many of us believed that there was a shortcut to availability to broadband,” Soderquist said. 

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