Sullivan Has New Partner in Broadband Project

KINGSTON – Sullivan County Legislature Vice Chair Mike Brooks, County Manager Josh Potosek and other County representatives met with the leadership team of Archtop Fiber, a private startup that is ready to string fiber-optic cable throughout Sullivan County and surrounding regions.

“Our visit affirmed Archtop’s commitment to partnering with us to bring high-speed broadband Internet to a large part of the County,” said Brooks. “We saw their new offices and hundreds of spools of cabling – nearly 22 million feet in total – occupying a portion of Kingston’s new iPark 87 complex, where IBM used to manufacture its famous typewriters and mainframe computers.”

The group from the County was joined in their visit by NYS Senator Peter Oberacker.
“Reliable, affordable high-speed broadband is vital for economic development, public safety, education, and quality of life. The public-private partnership forged between Sullivan County and Archtop Fiber will be extremely beneficial and should serve as a blueprint of how to develop real solutions to our communication needs. I commend all parties on the work to date and look forward to completion of this vital project,” said Senator Oberacker.

“Archtop Fiber is well along in our plan to construct a truly next-generation, all-fiber network and provide service across the Hudson Valley and our partnership with Sullivan County will help speed that deployment and extend our services through participation in such programs as the NY State ConnectALL program,” said Shawn Beqaj, Archtop Fiber Chief Development Officer. “In rural and agricultural regions with relatively low population density, the vision and enthusiasm of officials like Senator Oberacker and Legislator Brooks is essential to the maximization of both private and public investment in the regions’ infrastructure.”

Sullivan County has signed a memorandum of understanding with Archtop Fiber allowing for a partnership whereby the County and the Company are jointly developing a plan to extend multi-gig fiber to much of the County. The technology being deployed is capable of providing both upload and download speeds of 10GB/s. Archtop is investing several hundreds of million dollars across the Hudson Valley, and this agreement will allow the County to participate in both the planning of that private investment as well as upcoming NY State ConnectALL efforts to support the extension of broadband to unserved and underserved homes and business across the County and region.

Additionally, Sullivan County’s emergency communication towers will be connected to Archtop’s network, with the goal of offering wireless broadband service to areas that otherwise would be significantly difficult or expensive to reach with fiber.

“We are very proud of the fact that Sullivan was the first County to sign an agreement with Archtop Fiber, formalizing a public-private partnership that will benefit the County for years to come,” Brooks affirmed.

“They have already started to install their multi-gig fiber within certain areas of the Hudson Valley and are waiting on permits to attach to public utility poles in order to complete the first phase of construction,” Potosek explained. “I was impressed by the staff they’ve assembled and the plans they have to help us complete our goal of providing broadband service to as many people and businesses as possible in Sullivan County and leverage the NY Sate ConnectALL program wherever possible.”

“We hope to announce the launch of local service by 2024,” said Brooks. “Considering how essential access to high-speed broadband has become to our lives, this initiative will be transformative for residents, businesses and visitors across Sullivan County, and I welcome Archtop’s collaboration and dedication to making this happen.”