I sometimes get to quote myself in a press release. Still,this is big news around here!

Work on Phase I of the county Broadband Project will result in higher speeds for internet users in some hamlets in the county as soon as the end of this week, while other hamlets will not see increases until mid-February.
Frontier High Speed Max customers in Wells and Speculator will notice a doubling of speed this week, according to Todd Rulison, GeneralManager of Frontier Communications in Gloversville. New speeds should be in the area of 5 megs. High Speed Lite customers will not notice a change in their service. Max customers in Indian Lake should notice a speed increase within the next 10 days, followed by Blue Mountain Lake and Long Lake. The upgrade to the switches and backbone between Eagle Bay and Inlet will be last.
Once Phase I installation is complete, Rulison said that Frontier will offer customers within range of their main switches, which are all locatedin hamlets, other internet packages that will include an Ultra productproviding 12 meg speeds and Ultimate, providing up to 25 megs.
"It is important to note that in Phase 1 of the Broadband Project, only internet users within a two mile radius of main switches will see an increase in internet speeds," Ann Melious, country Director of Economic Development and Tourism said.
Phase II of the Broadband Project, which received $1.7 million in funding through the recent North Country Regional Economic Development Council (NCREDC) grant awards, will connect main switches to remote switches and extend a fiber optic cable spine from south to north and from Blue Mountain Lake to the west.
"Phase II will extend coverage to most outlying areas between Benson and Hope and Long Lake," Melious said. "Thank goodness Frontier is partnering with us, because they will be providing the $400,000 cash equity that was necessary for us to get the grant."
The Hamlet of Long Lake will also be connected to another broadband network that received a grant from the NCREDC. St. Lawrence Internet Connections (SLIC) will be connecting Long Lake to Tupper Lake.
The final piece of the connectivity puzzle is getting the Town of Morehouse faster speeds. Newport Telephone, the town's internet provider, has applied for a grant to bring fiber optic cable through Herkimer County into the town and would also provide back-up service, called redundancy, for the county's emergency communications system. Connect New York grants have not yet been announced.