Broadband Internet A Community Owned Enterprise.
Policy Note: June 2025
There is no denying the fact that broadband internet is a critical aspect of any community’s growth in the 21st century. The internet is the lifeblood of most businesses, from credit card processing (aka Point Of Sales or POS services) to online sales, the internet is required. It is becoming a vital tool for students to use in their research at our local school district. And it keeps families connected through social media and internet conferencing. However, the question is not do we need the internet, but how we harness the power of it to create a community-owned enterprise that will create great local careers and help to ensure our businesses and families have affordable internet use. [I use the internet to access research material all the time from Elsevier to J-Store and more.]
At present, our local community is locked into a monopoly of sorts because of our relative lack of population density, only one company using a NYS and Federal Grant has installed fiber optics in Windham and the adjacent areas: Mid-Hudson Online. This, of course, has given Mid-Hudson Online an advantage in our community. They own and control the infrastructure of the internet that we as a community need so much to ensure continued growth in our community. This, however, doesn’t have to be the case.
Many small communities throughout the United States have taken to the cooperative movement to establish community-owned enterprises for Internet delivery. In towns in Pennsylvania, in areas that voted for Donald Trump in the last election, are creating community-owned cooperatives to provide wireless broadband services. This is a great way for our community to wrestle back control of our utilities, build a foundation business for our community’s growth, and attract/retain local and outside people to our wonderful community.
This is the perfect type of project for our community to develop because it allows us to create an expansive project we export to other communities on the Mountain Top— bringing long-term job growth and stability to the region.
Imagine a future Windham Community-Owned Broadband Provider in the heart of Hensonville— employing 20-60 residents with careers? Revitalizing an aging main street in one of our historic hamlets is not just a great community action; it is smart growth and business as well. The City of Oakland, California, is currently in the process of creating a low-cost internet provider for the residents.
It can happen in Windham as well. Our own Greene County is making $2.2 million available to help fund fiber optic cable installation for broadband in parts of the county with limited internet access. We in Windham can use a series of grants from New York State to the USDA to provide for the creation of an entire Internet Provider that is completely owned by our Community.