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| ESD Secures New Service Providers for Lewis County Broadband Project With Completion Expected by End of 2020 June 26, 2019 04:30 p.m. By: Nick Altmire |
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Office (BPO) announced today that grants have been awarded to three service providers for unserved areas previously awarded to Mohawk Networks. In April, we reported that Mohawk Networks had pulled out of the project, citing feasibility concerns. "The Broadband Program Office has awarded Frontier Communications, SLIC Network Solutions and Hughes Network Systems grants covering the entirety of unserved areas formerly awarded to Mohawk Networks," a statement from the BPO states. "All of these locations- which are primarily in the North Country- will receive a new commitment for service under the State grant, with a majority to receive faster broadband speeds based on fiber optic networks to be constructed. These new awards reflect the product of months-long efforts led by Broadband Program Office to find a replacement for Mohawk. The Broadband Program Office is committed to ensuring that all New Yorkers have access to high-quality affordable broadband regardless of where they live or work," the statement continued.
was selected to deploy Fixed Wireless broadband to an estimated 4,909 unserved locations, primarily in the North Country Region. Earlier this year, Mohawk Networks informed the Broadband Program Office that it could not complete the projects due to problems with its initial design, cost overruns and ultimately unwillingness to proceed on the terms on which it initially bid in the competitive auction. The BPO has since terminated its Incentive Proposals to Mohawk Networks, and no State money has been provided to the company, according to the BPO. As a result of these new awards, the majority of these locations will have faster broadband download speeds than those promised by Mohawk Networks, with speeds of 100+ Mbps / up to 1 Gbps anticipated. All locations originally awarded to Mohawk Networks will be served by at least one broadband provider. Mohawk Networks had been awarded, subject to certain conditions, $6.4M to address an estimated 3,623 locations through Phase 2 of the project, primarily in Lewis County. The New NY Broadband Program will award $6M to Frontier Communications to deploy Fiber Optic infrastructure to 1,916 of these locations. The remainder of the locations previously designated to Mohawk Networks have been awarded to Hughes Network Systems. Frontier has also represented that its project will serve several hundred additional locations outside the original Mohawk award with fiber at no State cost. In addition, Mohawk Networks reports that it has deployed service to over 450 of the locations it was originally designated, but this has not been validated by the BPO, and no State funding has been issued to Mohawk Networks. All Lewis County locations originally awarded to Mohawk Networks will have access to broadband, according to the BPO. Over 1,600 of the locations awarded to Frontier for deployment of Fiber Optic broadband service are in Lewis County. In addition, most of the locations to which Mohawk Networks has deployed service are in Lewis County. Taken together, this existing Mohawk Networks service and Frontier’s incremental buildout could offer high speed broadband to as much as 80% of the number of Lewis County locations called for by the original Mohawk Networks award, with any balance to have satellite service from Hughes.
year-end 2020. The BPO said they will be closely monitoring the performance of these projects. |
