Shane Butler, Chenango County Department of Planning and Development; Terry Potter, Chief Marketing Officer, IWC; Chuck Bartosh, General Manager, Point Broadband; Jen Gregory, Executive Director, Southern Tier 8 Regional Planning Board; Jeremy Haefele, Vice President, Haefele Connect and Robert Jeffrey, Chair of the Board, Southern Tier 8 Regional Planning Board and Board of Supervisors, City of Norwich Wards 4, 5,6 at the November 3 press conference. (Submitted photo)

BINGHAMTON – Jen Gregory, Executive Director of the Southern Tier 8 Regional Board announced “Project Connect,” a major initiative to connect the agency’s entire eight-county region to high-speed broadband.

High-speed broadband is the critical infrastructure needed to drive major economic revitalization and a better quality of life in the region. As the first major step, Gregory also announced that Southern Tier 8 has submitted an application for a $22 million federal grant to connect nearly 1,000 of New York State’s hardest to connect residences to high-speed fiberoptic broadband.

The grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) would be used to connect 895 residential addresses in the Towns of Caroline, Coventry, Danby, German, Guilford, McDonough, Newfield, Oxford, and Taylor to high-speed fiber, through close partnerships with Haefele Connect, IWC, and Point Broadband. All of the 895 addresses in the 10 towns are located in rural areas with no access to broadband service.

“High-speed broadband is just about the most important piece of infrastructure for the Southern Tier and Central New York Regions to attract the jobs of the future, and enhance quality of life and overall opportunity,” said Gregory. “Through Project Connect, Southern Tier 8 is leading the charge to connect the entire region to fast, affordable, and reliable broadband service.

"Together with our partners Haefele Connect, IWC, and Point Broadband, I’m proud to say that we are making tremendous progress in connecting our part of the state. But, there’s lots more work to be done, so our sleeves are rolled up and we’re taking action,” she added.

If awarded, the 895 homes in the NTIA grant would go from having no broadband access at all to having some of the fastest and most reliable service in the nation through a partnership with internet service providers Hafele Connect, IWC, and Ithaca-based Point Broadband.

Studies show that when high-speed fiber infrastructure is widely deployed, communities benefit economically. A 2021 study by Bento Lobo, Ph.D, an economics professor at University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, revealed that over a ten-year period, high-speed fiber in the Chattanooga region yielded $2.7 billion in economic impact, and created nearly 10,000 new jobs.

The city, once known as the Dirtiest City in America, transformed itself into a hub for tech and innovation, where hometown companies like Open Table could scale and grow. Gregory says that type of economic opportunity could be felt in the region through Project Connect.

“Just as electricity and the interstate highways once transformed the regional economy, high-speed fiber is poised to revitalize the Southern Tier and Central New York, ushering in the jobs of the future, connecting our high quality labor force to global opportunity. Thanks to our close partnership with Hafele TV, IWC, and Point Broadband, these ten communities will be one step closer to greater opportunity,” noted Gregory.

“Point Broadband is excited about the opportunity to provide essential broadband access to the Southern Tier and Central NY communities and to continue our all-fiber network expansion in New York," said Chuck Bartosch, Point Broadband General Manager. “Our company prides itself with

our world class hometown approach to customer service and is committed to the communities we serve. This initiative is in perfect alignment with our vision to change lives through fiber technology and our mission to deliver superior fiber-based broadband solutions to small town USA and rural America.”

"The last two years have highlighted how essential it is to have adequate broadband speeds to support business, educational, and medical needs of rural America,” said Terry Potter, Chief Marketing Office, IWC. “This application for the NTIA funding is a reflection of ST8's commitment to improving the opportunities and quality of life for rural communities they represent throughout the Southern Tier and Central New York. "

“Haefele Connect is excited to partner with the Southern Tier 8 Regional Board in applying for this NTIA grant in order to provide high speed broadband internet, serving up to 164 currently unserved homes in the Town of Caroline in Tompkins County,” said Jeremy Haefele, Vice President, Haefele Connect. “Haefele Connect began offering cable TV in the Southern Tier and surrounding areas in 1983, and has been offering high speed internet to all of its customers since 2000."

As the region becomes a hotbed for fiber-broadband expansion, Southern Tier 8 plans to roll out additional announcements in the coming weeks to chronicle the progress made in connecting the area’s urban cores and vast rural areas through its Project Connect initiative.

The Southern Tier 8 Regional Board (“Southern Tier 8”) is a multifaceted economic development and planning agency serving eight counties (Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Tioga, and Tompkins) in the Southern Tier region of Upstate New York. Southern Tier 8’s focus is to sustain and grow the regional economy by developing forward-thinking ideas and practical solutions to create opportunities for the future. The agency identifies multi-county issues to improve quality of life and drive economic revitalization. For more information, please visit southerntier8.org.

– From the Southern Tier 8 Regional Board