Erie County lawmakers react to $36M ErieNET broadband project plan
ErieNET will be a 400-mile open access community that will hook up above 150 anchor institutions in Erie County aimed to assist near digital divide.
ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — ErieNET has been an ambitious program for county executive Mark Poloncarz. Just one that practically grew to become a monetary sufferer of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using American Rescue Program Act cash, nonetheless, ErieNET is alive once more and even has a business system.
The county unveiled its business enterprise prepare, which you can go through under, that lays out the framework for the $38 million job.
The 400-mile task will make a ring all-around Erie County and connect anchor establishments in the Town of Buffalo, but more importantly in the rural locations that are considerably underserved.
The company plan, created by ECC Technologies (not affiliated with SUNY Erie) identified two main objectives for ErieNET:
- Enhance the availability of superior-velocity broadband net to serve additional Erie County citizens
- Improve local broadband opposition for each residential and industrial buyers.
Multiple sources have advised 2 On Your Aspect that Constitution, which operates as Spectrum, has no curiosity in connecting to the ErieNET fiber lines and connecting company to properties.
The business enterprise plan does emphasize and depends on extra carriers to lease space on the ErieNET center mile to connect all those underserved communities.
ErieNET will not instantly join to household properties, and the county is not having into the residential ISP organization.
The prepare does outline that there will be damaging profit for at least five many years. Those people losses, having said that, will be allocated for in the revenue secured by the ARPA funds.
Of the $38 million desired for the job, $2.8 million is coming immediately from the county.
According to the plan, ErieNET will hook up to 40 diverse Town/Village halls, 37 libraries, 11 county towers, and other anchor internet sites. In overall, 152 diverse sites will be related to ErieNET.
The organization plan released Thursday particularly pointed out that the College at Buffalo, as very well as the metropolis of Buffalo, have expressed “really serious interest” in the ErieNET job. The county is at this time negotiating with each establishments over spending plan and participation in the challenge.
One particular area that is not staying linked to ErieNET is the City of Wales. 2 On Your Facet has requested county officers about this, but has not gained clarification as to why.
You can go through the enterprise strategy in this article:


