The Tompkins County Town of Dryden is looking at becoming its own internet service provider for its residents.
A draft feasibility study of the project has just been completed for the Town.
According to the Dryden Town Supervisor, it would make Dryden the first municipality in New York State to create and operate an internet service for its residents.
Jason Leifer and Deputy Town Supervisor Dan Lamb on Tuesday met with the consultant about the study.
“Right now, the feasibility study is pointing towards doing this,” Lamb tells NewsChannel 9.
Leifer says, “We should easily be able to do this, and we should be able to be the first ones in the State to do it.”
He says the first estimates put the cost of building out an internet service at about $12 million, but he says that’s an early number which could fluctuate up or down.
The Town, Leifer says, would look for grant opportunities and borrowing to pay for the cost of the rollout. He says they would need to run new fiber, or in some cases, use existing infrastructure, and then have to connect to an internet backbone. Many of the features associated with the service itself, Leifer adds, could be contracted out.
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