The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software.
Joe Coldebella:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Broadband Bunch. We’re at Broadband Communities 2022, coming to you from the Harrison Edwards Summit Studio. I’m Joe Coldebella. Joining me today is Jen Gregory, the Executive Director of the Southern Tier 8 Regional Board, that’s a lot. Jen, welcome to The Broadband Bunch.
Jen Gregory:
Good morning, Joe. Thank you for having me. I’m super excited to be here in Houston.
Joe Coldebella:
Well, it’s awesome to have you as well. You’ve made some great announcements here at the Broadband Communities. But before we dive into that, I would love it if you could give the audience just a little bit of background of yourself and your organization.
Jen Gregory:
Sure, and like you said, our name is a mouthful. Let me break that down for you. Southern Tier 8 Regional Board out of Binghamton, New York. We are the rural area, the Southern tier of New York State bordering Pennsylvania, an hour south of the great city of Syracuse. Right on the border another hour south to Scranton, Pennsylvania. We cover the eight, which stands for the eight-member counties that we represent. From a federal standpoint, we are the Northern region of Northern Appalachia of the Appalachian Regional Commission. Which extends from New York, south to Alabama, to all the rural communities.
Joe Coldebella:
Oh, wow. That’s crazy that I never knew that there was even something specifically set aside for Appalachia.
Jen Gregory:
Absolutely. There’s a new law now in Congress to look at help for rural communities and address some of this infrastructure rollout. We have a solid commission that’s been with us since 1968, and that’s really made it viable to pursue some of these initiatives that we have underway. Binghamton, New York, one of the communities that we cover is Ithaca, where Cornell University is, as well as Cooperstown, New York, Baseball Hall of Fame.
Joe Coldebella:
Love it, been there.
Jen Gregory:
In June, we will be opening a Gigafactory for lithium-ion batteries Imperium3 New York. That’s exciting too. Our region, is very rural in nature, with a population of 600,000. Headquarters to Chobani, as well as some aerospace industries, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin. We have a strong manufacturing and ag presence in the region.
Joe Coldebella:
Wow, that’s great. One of the things that I like to do is when we have folks, when people hear New York, often they think of the tri-state area, New York City, which is populated and its city. But the Upstate New York region is much different. Could you give us a snapshot of that?
Jen Gregory:
Sure. We are also at the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay that starts in Cooperstown, New York, as well as we’re home to the Catskills. Folks from New York, if you want to take a two-and-a-half-hour drive north and enjoy our hills and excellent fishing, that’s the spot where you’d like to retreat to.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s awesome. In terms of broadband deployment in the area, is it one of those things where it’s readily available, it’s scarce? Uh-oh.
Jen Gregory:
Oh, you asked that question. That’s why I’m here. Over the last several years, the Governor has built a strong case for broadband and made a huge investment across New York State. Our governor, Kathy Hochul, is continuing that as well. But there are still those pockets of rural disinvestment. We’re talking about that 10 to 20% in a community of folks that literally do not have service.
Joe Coldebella:
Right. You’re here today for this conference and you’ve made some exciting announcements in terms of two projects with your Project Connect initiative. Could you talk about each one of those?
Jen Gregory:
Sure, sure. There are several, so we’ve had a vast rural community and there are several needs across the community. One is to assist those with affordability and build economic growth and build that middle-mile infrastructure that makes it more affordable and encourages the smaller ISPs to support them to invest in the area so they can deliver those last-mile services. That’s one part of it.
Jen Gregory:
The second part is reaching that last mile and incentivizing this for the last mile internet service providers to expand across our rural communities.
Joe Coldebella:
The first project, the middle mile project, where does that originate? Is it for business, for bringing to local residents?
Jen Gregory:
Sure. Our middle mile network started a built-in 2009 with Corning and it is mile by mile, inch per inch, since 2009, so more than a decade. We’ve worked on expanding that for business, for education, to keep costs reduced for municipalities, to extend. We have several counties we’re in now, and we’re continuing that build-out.
Joe Coldebella:
Just to talk about in terms of the municipalities, is that something that in the past New York allowed for a local entity to be the broadband supplier to areas?
Jen Gregory:
Yeah. Unlike some other states, New York is pretty progressive with that. Southern Tier Network was a great model for them and they started supporting this initiative in 2013 to build out. What that allows is you don’t have those long-haul costs that a municipality may be paying to another higher-price provider.
Jen Gregory:
This is because it’s nonprofit, owned by municipalities, a coalition of municipalities, and that’s important too because it’s really tough for one municipality to do this on their own, especially when you’re talking about rural areas and miles and miles of fiber. That allowed the Southern Tier Network to set the pricing so that you know what the pricing is for the next 30 years, and reduce those costs. Any of the schools that were on contracts were paying for those long-mile services, now they have an established price that they know what they’ll be paying for the next 30 years.
Jen Gregory:
It also brings that cost for the internet service providers so they don’t have to pay the long haul to connect the urban areas, and then they can spend those dollars increasing their path of the last mile, and really hit the target communities that they’re in. I’ve seen that cost reduced. Our cost for broadband is about 10 to 20% more than the national average. This brought, so I pay with Spectrum 186 a month for the Triple Play. One of the local providers on the Southern Tier Network reduced those costs to $67 a month for the Triple Play for fiber to the home. That’s a game-changer for those municipalities. Those are the things that really hit our pockets.
Joe Coldebella:
Well, and also it’s one of those things that, unfortunately, we hear is that lots of times the rural communities are losing the younger folks just for reasons like that.
Jen Gregory:
Absolutely. It’s really hard. When you don’t have the service available, then you don’t have the applications that are available, and that’s what our younger generations are used to. Across our eight counties, before the pandemic, our enrollment at our universities and colleges was 77,000 kids each year that are enrolled. That’s a huge population.
Jen Gregory:
What we’re seeing is not a lot of them are staying in the community. The more improvements we can make to this infrastructure, hopefully, they will build upon their choices and they’ll say, “Boy, that’s worth looking and staying here.”
Joe Coldebella:
Right. Because I mean, upstate New York is absolutely beautiful, and the quality of life is there. Now, with remote work being more acceptable, it seems if you have a positive infrastructure, a fiber infrastructure you’re hopefully going to retain some of those young folks to keep the community vibrant.
Jen Gregory:
Absolutely. We’ve seen that, especially in the Finger Lakes and the Catskills during the pandemic. Second homes or vacation homes became more like permanent residences for folks. It’s crazy our housing market is as crazy as it is across the rest of the US.
Jen Gregory:
Nothing is staying in the market and there’s that question, will they stay? But they’re also there to say, “Look, we would really like to connect here and we would stay here longer if we had the ability to do so.”
Joe Coldebella:
Right. You have the one project, the middle mile project, in Broome County?
Jen Gregory:
Correct. For our urban areas, the hope that we can develop a smart city between Binghamton, Endicott, and Johnson City.
Joe Coldebella:
Okay. Super. Then the second big project though, is almost the complete opposite in the sense that literally those folks don’t get any connectivity at all. Could you talk about that, please?
Jen Gregory:
It is Joe. Thank you. It is, it’s the polar opposites of the solutions, but we do have several needs across the region. So that showcases it very nicely. Before the Infrastructure Bill was passed, there were a few opportunities for funding from federal agencies. Luckily, we were thinking about this and addressing the needs of our communities.
Jen Gregory:
Looking at build-outs to run fiber, you have to go through a Pole Attachment Agreement process. There can be some time, so in order to expedite the build-out, we chose a wireless solution for the communities, and our chair for our broadband committee, Shane Butler. He’s awesome. He spent his time writing this grant and getting the funding and securing the funding to do a wireless build-out that will be delivered by the end of the year for these residents.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s fantastic. Obviously, fiber would be the optimal direction, but is it one of those things where it’s like, “Hey, listen, let’s crawl, then walk, and then eventually, hopefully, we can run.”
Jen Gregory:
Absolutely. That’s easy for us to make that decision when we already have service, right? But they were totally isolated. Imagine going into the pandemic and you weren’t able to connect on Zoom or reach your folks. Shane’s really helping them out with needs that we need to address very quickly.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s awesome. Obviously, you’ve got these two projects going, have you had any early wins in terms of where it’s been a really encouraging thing as you guys move forward?
Jen Gregory:
We did. We also have an additional build-out underway thanks to investment from the Appalachian Regional Commission. To expand the middle mile network to a former coal plant that was closed. That construction will be starting very soon. There’ll be an announcement about that to build and then create a data center where that coal plant was.
Joe Coldebella:
Okay. Obviously, that’s a great win for you guys. Now, have you guys had any challenges or has it just been super-duper easy?
Jen Gregory:
No, it’s been so easy. It sells itself. I started out as the GIS Administrator for this organization, for Southern Tier 8, and in 2008, 2009, when we had the recession, that’s the last time NTIA had a large investment. We put in a proposal for the Southern Tier Network and I was the GIS Administrator, and the executive director who was leading that project at the time, he went to Australia for a month. We got a call from NTIA, they said, “Congratulations. We saved the best projects for last. We’re going through the due diligence stage. It’ll be about a month to go through this process.” And the Assistant Director said, “Well, Jen, you’ve been on the GIS mapping. Here, why don’t you take over?”
Joe Coldebella:
Wow.
Jen Gregory:
That’s how I started with this, and I can tell you the toughest part of this, granted, the grants are pretty black and white, right? When the funding’s available, it’s available. When it’s not, it’s not. But building the support and the political will for this and maintaining that over the last 10 years, when you can imagine you’re covering eight counties with new leadership coming in and out. New at the state, new at the federal, it’s a test of our perseverance with this.
Joe Coldebella:
No, you should be applauded for that as well, because it’s also when you work with government officials that they wear many hats. They put out a lot of fires and sometimes broadband is on the back burner because it’s like I always say that the silver lining from the pandemic is that it really highlighted how important broadband is and how important it is going to be moving forward. So, kudos to you because, yeah. It’s one of those things that’s a tough battle.
Jen Gregory:
Well, thank you, Joe. I, personally, put it on the back burner for a while because the state did have a good investment package and we were struggling to see where that investment would end up? I didn’t see funding coming down the pike here. In, I think it was 2019, I said to my board, I said, “Well, we’re going to put this on the back burner and wait and see what the rollout is at the end of 2021, assess who still needs our help?” Then March 2020 came along. And it became a priority, and I had to take a hard look and say, “Okay, do I want to get involved with this again?” I felt very strongly, that’s our responsibility to do so because you can’t go it alone.
Joe Coldebella:
Absolutely. It’s one of those things where you guys are building a lot of momentum and now you’re cooking with gasoline. You’ve just also announced at Broadband Communities, that you’re going to be having a conference on June 28th. Could you talk about that?
Jen Gregory:
We are. I’m so grateful to my board and to my partners. It’s a true commitment from them as well. To give everyone a sense, we meet on a bimonthly basis. Every two weeks we’re meeting as a coalition for this.
Joe Coldebella:
Oh, really.
Jen Gregory:
Because there’s so much to be done here. With their help, in bringing in new staff, they said, “Well, how do I learn more? How do I do this?” We have a public engagement program, a survey out that I’ll be talking about later called The Better Connection program online. We wanted to reach out to the public again, talk to them about what we’re moving forward, share this with the municipal leaders, and share some best practices. Say, this is where the surveys have come back. This is the data we see. How can you best prepare to be ready for the state rollout of the Better Connect Program? We decided to have a conference on June 28th in downtown Binghamton at the DoubleTree. Everyone is welcome to join us on that day. The registration is @southerntiersummit.com.
Joe Coldebella:
Okay, and then who are you looking to go to that? Is it one of those things where you want industry folks? Are you looking for community leaders? Who exactly do you want to attend the events?
Jen Gregory:
Thank you, Joe. Yes. The ISPs, the community leaders, the grant writers, and anyone that’s in this industry so that everyone has an opportunity to connect. I find myself throughout the day connecting folks and sharing phone numbers, and making introductions. This will allow everyone that I’ve been working with to be able to get to know one another and pick up the phone and be able have that conversation with folks.
Jen Gregory:
When we submitted an NTIA application for last-mile delivery, I literally called the ISPs and said, “Would you be willing to help the communities out with this if we can get the grant funding to do so?” Thankfully, they stepped up and shared their willingness, and that’s what I hope my partners can gain out of this as well.
Joe Coldebella:
Sure. Sort of a galvanizing event?
Jen Gregory:
Exactly, and build those relationships. We’ve been stuck in this pandemic and isolated and you just can’t form those relationships over email or Zoom. It’s best to meet in person and shake each other’s hands.
Joe Coldebella:
I totally agree. It’s one of those things where when you breathe the same air, there’s just something different. Sometimes when you’re on those Zoom calls, they can be productive, but they also can be frustrating. It’s one of those things where events like this are truly important.
Jen Gregory:
Absolutely. I’m a proponent of picking up the phone, going meet the person, sit down with them. If you don’t know them, but you think you have mutual interests, go forward and you don’t know what may happen? You might be able to build something cool together.
Joe Coldebella:
Right? No, Jen, this has been an awesome talk. As we wind up here, I get to ask, the two questions that we ask everybody. The first one is, obviously, our Back to the Future question. If I get to give you the keys to the DeLorean and you get to go back in time, 5, 10, 7 years, however, you want, and you could whisper something in your ear or somebody else’s ear to make the journey a little bit easier, what would it be?
Jen Gregory:
What a good question. I think about, “Oh, what would I say about broadband or what would I invest in seriously to make this easier?” Boy, that’s a tough question. Where would I go? We all can reflect and see different changes that we would make with things, right? I guess I would tell myself to get out there more. I probably would have done more networking like this because it really opens up the opportunity for your community.
Joe Coldebella:
I love that answer. That’s a great answer because I think it’s really true that at this conference, I was speaking with Joey Wender with the Treasure Department and he was like, “Listen, nobody can stand still right now. Now is the go time,” so that’s a great point. It’s one of those things is you got to get out, you got to meet people because that’s where all the information is.
Jen Gregory:
Absolutely, and I probably would’ve stocked up on more toilet paper in March 2020.
Joe Coldebella:
Hey, obviously we ask the converse question. If I was to give you the crystal ball and you were to look into the future for Upstate New York in terms of your area, where do you see things, hopefully in three to five to seven years?
Jen Gregory:
Thank you. Because this isn’t a one-year turnaround. This is a three to five to seven-year program. I’m really hopeful, Joe. Really for a long time, our community has been challenged with decreasing population, but I’m super excited for our future in the area. We have the lithium-ion battery production starting next month with all of the supply chain industries mapped out. Hoping to build that cluster, build this broadband, expand our middle mile network and get those last 10 to 20% of that population, get them served and lit up with this service.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s awesome. So Jen, if someone wanted to get a hold of you or your organization either just to reach out to you or to learn more about the event, where can they go?
Jen Gregory:
Sure. A couple of places. Our website, Southerntier8.org, that is the number eight. I’m also on LinkedIn, Jen, and Binghamton. I post quite regularly on that. They’re also welcome to give us a call at our office (607) 724-1327, and hopefully, they can give us a call and register for the conference and I can meet with them on June 28th.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Jen, this has been a super fantastic visit. I can’t thank you enough for spending time with The Broadband Bunch.
Jen Gregory:
Thank you so much, Joe. It’s super to meet you this week.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Well, that’s going to do it for this episode of The Broadband Bunch. Until next time, we’ll see you later.
