ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — ErieNet is a little closer to becoming a reality. The local development corporation controlled by Erie County has purchased all of the necessary fiber optic cable needed for the middle-mile network.
400 miles of cable are currently sitting at a facility in Erie County waiting to be installed.
Melissa Hartman, former Eden Town Supervisor and current Executive Director of ErieNet says the LDC began underground conduit work in November, but utility pole work is expected in late winter or early spring.
"The biggest process of construction is Make ready, and that's the process of getting all the utility poles ready for the fiber to be strong," Hartman said. "So we're deep into that process now."
Hartman was named executive director of ErieNet in May. Since then, she has been working on getting up to speed with the project and looking ahead towards further expansion of the network.
"We're meeting with the municipalities and with some key potential customers," Hartman said. "But mainly our goal is to have the municipalities, our public safety, health care system school systems, as our primary and initial customers to get them online as soon as possible."
Hartman is also looking at taking advantage of municipal infrastructure grants that the NYS ConnectAll Office is making available. The state has set aside $100M of its American Rescue Plan funds to provide municipalities with funding to expand their own networks. Erie County is one of the few municipalities in the state that has begun working on its own network and is in a prime position to receive additional funds.
"We are looking at helping the municipalities of Erie County with their capital costs towards this project, and hopefully expanding those networks in each municipality," Hartman said. "Once the system is built, it will bring more connectivity and more opportunity to bring in additional internet service providers, which will really benefit the residents down the line."
But in terms of who will tap into the network?
Sources at Spectrum and Verizon have previously told 2 On Your Side that they aren't interested in connecting to a network they don't own -- but now with ErieNet becoming a reality, it's possible that there may have been a change of heart.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz previously stated that the county has had conversations with Greenlight Networks and Google about using the county network to connect the so-called last mile to residential neighborhoods and business districts.
Hartman didn't say that any providers have committed to using the network but said conversations are ongoing.
"We're not really worried about that," Hartman said. "What we're excited about is some of the smaller Internet Service Providers being able to come into these communities because they don't have to put up the construction costs."
Harman says that the project remains on budget, estimated between $34-$36M, despite an initial proposed cost of $20M in 2019. Post-pandemic inflation of materials needed for the project was the explained reason for the jump in costs last year.