Satellite takes lead in conversations around connectivity issues in rural communities
A final push to connect those living in isolated Adirondack enclaves with high-speed internet is on hold, following efforts in Washington to tip the scales in favor of satellite service over more traditional fiber connections.
Advocates who for more than a decade have been working to connect the Adirondacks with high speed Internet fear this action will force residents to settle for broadband service that is both significantly slower and costlier than fiber. It has also kindled growing concerns that poorer Adirondack families may finally get high speed internet, only to discover they cannot afford the monthly bills.
In March, more than $42 billion in funding from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program — passed as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law under the Biden administration — was paused, while Congress rewrites the law to accommodate low-orbit satellite internet providers, such as Elon Musk’s Starlink network.
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Along with Musk, the chief beneficiary would be the federal government itself, which is subsidizing broadband construction across the nation. The capital set-up costs of satellite are in the hundreds of dollars, while for terrestrial fiber they are in the thousands — but satellite comes with higher monthly bills, meaning the cost will ultimately be shifted from the government to the homeowner.
What this means for rural communities
“Converting the BEAD Program to a Musk solution would save the feds a bunch of money, but leave most of the recipients in New York State with an inferior solution,” said Dave Wolff, who hosts a monthly web conference with North Country broadband stakeholders.
In an email that was widely circulated among Adirondack broadband advocates, outgoing Commerce Department official Evan Feinman put it more bluntly, writing that “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington.”
Connectivity gaps remain in the Adirondacks
Although massive gains have been made, broadband in the Adirondacks is not a given.
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“We still get messages all the time from people who reach out and say ‘my internet is terrible,’ or ‘this tool says that a provider should be giving me internet,’ and when I call them they say it’s absolutely not serviceable,” said Kristina Hartzell, communications and operations manager for the nonprofit AdkAction. “It just really speaks to how important the internet is in our day to day lives that people are still calling in desperation, hoping that we might be able to help them.”
Broadband is, Hartzell said, an essential service in the Adirondacks, as remote work, telehealth and distance learning have reduced the need for lengthy drives and brought a spark of economic vibrancy to remote locations. The Journal of the American Medical Association goes so far as to classify it as a basic need that is a determinant of overall health.
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“I run two global businesses remotely out of my home In Old Forge, and I was able to move here and make a life for myself because I had stable Internet access,” said Elizabeth Ruscitto, AdkAction’s board chair.
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The Adirondacks also is in a better place because early on, the Development Authority of the North Country provided fiber to schools in what is now a 2,000-mile backbone of trunk lines that can be freely accessed by any consumer broadband provider, big or little, that wants to patch in.
Unconnected and ‘underserved’
But even after more than a decade of work, there remain pockets of unconnected Adirondackers.
According to broadband industry consultant CostQuest, several thousand Adirondack broadband-eligible locations remain unserved (defined as having download speeds of less than 20 Mbps). In the heart of the park, that includes 1,438 in Essex County, 2,665 in Franklin County and 652 in Hamilton County.
Even more consumers are “underserved,” defined as having download speeds of less than 100 Mbps. Adirondack broadband advocates consider satellite, which has download speeds between 50 Mbps and 250 Mbps — depending on service plan and location — to be a last resort when no other options are possible. And in parts of the park where no cable-stringing bucket trucks are on the horizon, satellite can be a lifesaver.
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Jenny Smith, owner of a historic tavern and hotel in the town of Arietta, said satellite is sufficient for her business needs and a godsend where there was no other option.
“We don’t have a huge amount of people here, which is why we get overlooked,” she said. She circulated a petition in her community, known as Lower Arietta, but the 28 signees weren’t enough to turn any heads.
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As the face of Adirondack business changes, looking less like the big mills and mines of old and more like a diversified network of sole proprietors, often working out of their homes, broadband becomes more essential, said John Wheatley, vice president of the Warren County Economic Development Commission.
“It’s of such economic importance to these small cottage industries,” said Wheatley, who noted that new businesses tend to be popping up in the rural, western part of Warren County.
Tech-related businesses often demand the performance of fiber, and Adirondack internet advocates view satellite as a last resort due to its greater lag time, known in the business as latency. That lack of speed can affect real-time applications such as gaming and video conferencing, and it is, for some people, prohibitively expensive.
Satellite vs fiber
According to a tech review on CNET, satellite speeds have improved over the past year, but at the same time there were also two price hikes in the monthly bill. Satellite can also be tricky in the heavily forested Adirondacks because the equipment needs a clear view of the sky.
A Starlink set-up kit costs $600, with professional installation costing another $200 or more. The residential service bill is $120 a month for unlimited data, and business plans with priority service start at $500.
And while the efforts of the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to steer federal money to satellite providers will not affect projects that are in the works, such as the current $2.4 million buildout in eastern Franklin County, the nonpartisan Benton Institute for Broadband warned that rewriting BEAD will delay future projects by a year or more.
Some aspects of the new bill are viewed favorably by providers, including those that would relax environmental regulations and scrap the requirement to pay union wages. (The law also changes the “E” in BEAD from “Equity” to “Expansion”.)
Along with uncertainty at the federal level, there are state and local issues that have hindered the buildout of high-speed internet, which is often compared to the effort to electrify rural America in the mid-20th century.
The Department of Transportation charges fiber providers for using its right-of-way, which includes state highways and roadways, while the owners of the poles (usually power companies) charge fees to prepare poles for the addition of another line.
Costly endeavors
These obstacles are both expensive and time consuming, said Kevin Lynch, owner of SLICFiber Communications. Because of these expenses and delays, It can cost as much as $30,000 to reach a single home, and take nearly two years just to get the permits needed to attach a line to a pole.
In 2015, before public money began to flow into broadband, 78% of the costs of providing high-speed internet went into actual construction costs, according to industry data. Today, only 30% of broadband dollars go toward connecting Adirondack homes to the internet — the rest goes to fees for permits, survey requirements and pole access. That’s pushed the per-mile cost to string fiber from $20,000 to $70,000, Lynch said.
Patrick Stella, communications manager for the power company National Grid, said costs are high in the Adirondacks because legacy infrastructure did not anticipate the coming of broadband.
Because the park population, and electrical use, has remained static, there had not been the need to add capacity. That meant that old, short poles were safe and adequate to do the job, Stella said. But to make room for fiber and remain safe, many of these poles have to be replaced. There is disagreement between power and fiber companies who should pay for these new poles.
Low-income residents hit multiple ways
Ultimately, those costs will be paid by residents, whether it shows up in their power bill or their broadband bill. And broadband advocates are increasingly worried that lower-income people may see their homes finally connected to high-speed internet, only to find the monthly bill to be unaffordable.
The federal Affordable Connectivity Program, which subsidized broadband costs for low-income families ran out of funds last year, and a federal website helping people to find low-cost options has been taken down.
The State of New York has attempted to fill the need with its own Affordable Broadband Act, which requires broadband providers to offer a low-income option of $15 or $20 a month depending on speed, to low-income residents who qualify for other government help such as Medicaid, SNAP or free school lunch.
Rather than comply with the price caps, ATT discontinued its 5G Internet Air service in New York altogether. And advocates worry that even with access to broadband, poor people will not be able to afford the computers or tablets that make it usable — to some, a cell phone remains their sole connection to the digital world.
Still, overall there have been more successes than failures in the Adirondack broadband story and there has been significant progress in bringing service to unserved areas of the state. Working with regional providers, and broadband advocates have had lots of practice developing workarounds — the BEAD setback is just one more obstacle to scale. “It’s a very complicated issue, and there are multiple layers,” Ruscitto said. “We still have a way to go, but I think that there’s been quite a lot of progress made.”
Photo at top: Photo by Junior Teixeira, courtesy of Pexels.com
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Prior administration was so corrupt they have to review everything. Biased Biden administration funneling money to their donors.
Nice projection ya got there. It must be a shock when you leave your echo chamber.
Alternate, accurate headline:
Corrupt Trump Administration to Consider Awarding Another No Bid Contract to Campaign’s Highest Donor.
“Campaign’s Highest Donor.”
More than one meaning with the word “highest“…
If you live in any of the major towns in the park you have had good internet service with cable etc for decades. If not for the idiot tree huggers and APA gestapo, you would have a cellular network like found anyplace in remote Sweden or Norway back woods and with that good internet service. All hidden in the woods. If you decide to live in your remote paradise in a yurt the rest of us tax payers see no need to run service to you. As for Starlink–prices will come down and the install is much less than stated.
MAGA strikes again, prefers billionaire businessmen over the rest of us.
To be more accurate the headline of this article should be “ Adirondack high-speed internet funding halted by Washington” or “ Adirondack high-speed internet progress halted by Washington” or even “ Adirondack high-speed internet planning halted by Washington”. Plans are different from funding. A plan can not be “halted”. It can be discarded or changed. On the other hand funding, progress or planning itself can be halted. In this case Washington simply halted funding. It did not do anything, yet to plans or planning.
It may seem like a minor difference but it changes the story completely in my opinion.
The problem we now face is that everyone’s defaut reaction to anything that any opposing party does is that is a terrible idea and must be crushed immediately. People have lost all sense and it has been replaced with freak out reactions like you see in the comment here.
Maybe not trying to physically connect every remote part of the Adirondacks with fiber optic cables is an idea worth considering, if it can be done much easier and cheaper with a wireless option. I personally hate all the wires you gotta look at these days. It makes me think that we are still living in some previously old fashioned era. I would consider seriously whether or not a change here could actually make sense. Many folks I know working remotely is places like boat access only camps in the Saranac Lake area are having real good luck with satellite internet. Personally I don’t care who is selling it as long as it works well.