The One Thing that 2,800 Ulster County Households Lack Across 21 Municipalities

Portions of Ulster County are not served with high-speed internet. Knowing this lack of service, in 2022 the Ulster County Comptroller used her power under the Ulster County Charter to convene a Citizens Commission for Digital Inclusion. The Commission is made up individual citizens and elected officials from those communities that are least served with high-speed fiber.

The Commission has met 14 times over the course of the last two years and has taken on a variety of activities:

• Two Broadband Town Halls in the Town of Shandaken and Town of Rochester.
• Created the Ulster County Broadband Map and filed numerous challenges with both the FCC and the ConnectAll New York broadband program
• Maintains a list of unserved addresses in Ulster County.
• Maintained a library of cable franchise agreements so municipalities negotiating with Charter/Spectrum cable franchise agreements have example agreements to review.
• Maintained a list of Free Ulster County Public WiFi Locations
• Shares and communicates information regarding the Broadband infrastructure funding being made available through the BEAD program. This work includes sharing information with elected officials as well as the public

According to the New York State Broadband Map, the following Towns have the most households affected by this issue:

1. Town of Wawarsing – 378 Households (5.5%) Unserved
2. Town of Lloyd – 301 Households (6.3%) Unserved
3. Town of Saugerties – 245 Households (2.6%) Unserved
4. Town of Denning – 219 Households (33.6%) Unserved
5. Town of Plattekill – 189 Households (4.2%) Unserved
6. Town of Rochester – 164 Households (4.1%) Unserved
7. Town of Marbletown – 156 Households (4.4%) Unserved
8. Town of Shandaken – 145 Households (5%) Unserved
9. Town of Esopus – 138 Households (3%) Unserved
10. Town of Shawangunk – 130 Households (2.9%) Unserved
11. Town of Gardiner – 121 Households (4.2%) Unserved
12. Town of Ulster – 99 Households (1.7%) Unserved
13. City of Kingston – 92 Households (0.8%) Unserved
14. Town of New Paltz – 91 Households (2.1%) Unserved
15. Town of Woodstock – 87 Households (2.1%) Unserved
16. Town of Olive – 67 Households (2.6%) Unserved
17. Town of Hurley – 37 Households (1.2%) Unserved
18. Village of New Paltz – 32 Households (2.6%) Unserved
19. Village of Saugerties – 32 Households (2.1%) Unserved
20. Town of Kingston – 23 Households (3.6%) Unserved
21. Town of Hardenburgh – 13 Households (3.4%) Unserved

As the Commission conducted its work over the last two years, two additional topics that come up often are that areas of the County lack cellular service and that emergency responders have no communications in certain areas of the County.

Ulster County requires special consideration as it presents unique challenges for expansion of broadband:

• The heart of the Catskill Park lies in the County; The Park’s preservation as “forever wild” under the New York State Constitution limits utilities projects. Those limits are further reinforced by the rugged, open terrain that includes the Catskill high-peaks.
• New York City’s highly-regulated watershed and reservoir systems are also centered in Ulster.
• Low population density is also an issue. All of Ulster, except for the City of Kingston, is considered “rural” by NTIA and ConnectALL definitions.