At the end of June, the federal government is expected to announce allocations for states to expand their broadband infrastructure, a process that's played out for months, if not years, in many communities.
"Our east part of the town has no service, no broadband service," Ghent Town Supervisor Craig Simmons says. "We've been working for about the last 7-8 years in getting this project done...we've been running into some hurdles."
Ghent allocated $180,000 of their ARPA money to complete their broadband project, but Simmons, along with those in charge of finishing it, say they've run into procedural challenges along the way.
"The administrative issues, the permitting issues, the bureaucracy of it really has become fundamentally out of control," Shawn Beqaj, Chief Development Officer at Archtop Fiber, says. "When it costs in permitting and engineering two times what it actually costs to construct the asset, it's illustrative that there is a problem there. That problem will be mitigated by better oversight of all of us."
Service providers are also pushing for more involvement of utility companies like NYSEG and National Grid, of which play a role in the infrastructure of expanding this service.
"If there's more coordination between the utilities and the high speed service providers we can bridge a number of those gaps," US House of Representatives Republican Marc Molinaro says. "But, there are regulatory changes that New York needs to make in order to make clear in finishing this effort of getting high speed internet into communities."
Molinaro says the federal government needs to boost these efforts more, while also streamline the grant process from their end in order for a quicker turnaround. Hundreds of residents still remain without this broadband service in rural areas throughout the state, in many cases impacting education, health or their business.
"If we can break down some of those barriers to getting that last 200 feet, that last mile, it'll open up some hot spots, some more cellular access for our kids, our homeless population, some of our disenfranchised folks economically, they're the ones that need it the most," Dr. Neil Howard, Taconic Hills School District Superintendent, says.