New Scotland

"I've always been tilting at windmills,'' Peter Henner said of his numerous battles, starting in the 1970s, when he was a union organizer for textile workers.

Some of the fights have paid off — he lives in an expansive and modern country home, complete with a 7-acre pond in a rural section of New Scotland.

As a lawyer, Henner has battled would-be landfill and power plant operators as well as tanneries. And he's represented public employees who were mistreated by their bosses.

Now, he's taking on the Cuomo administration's plans to spend $500 million over the next three years to upgrade Internet broadband capacity in under-served areas across New York.

He's not battling the idea itself, but is seeking to carve out a role as a watchdog in the complicated, years-long process.

The governor's Broadband Initiative, he believes, could improve Internet connectivity for thousands of people. Or, he fears, it could become a boondoggle in which people in truly remote areas are left behind.

To prevent the second outcome, Henner has been seeking details on the program. Late last year, he went to court against the state's Empire State Development agency, which is overseeing the initiative, to unseal the written comments from dozens of potential bidders, community groups and others who are interested in the Broadband Initiative.

The documents reveal some of the challenges of expanding broadband Internet capacity in a large and geographically diverse state. They include debate on topics ranging from who should provide the broadband to what Internet speed is realistic. The comments make it clear that there are competing technologies as well as potential conflicts between the public and private sectors about who should take the lead in expanding access.

The New NY Broadband Program aims to address a persistent and irritating reality for many upstate New Yorkers: the lack of affordable, reliable broadband Internet service. That's largely due to the prohibitive costs of installing the cable in remote areas, according to service providers.

Locations like the Hilltowns south of Albany, and much of the Catskills, Adirondacks and other rural areas are not wired for cable, which means they don't have access to the copper or fiber optic-cable that carries traditional broadband signals.

As well as the cost of wiring, there are still spots that lack infrastructure such as towers that help broadcast wireless broadband signals using microwave technology.

Henner, for example, relies on a cellular connection, similar to that for mobile phones, to access the Internet from his rural home.

If he needs to do legal research, for as little as 30 minutes, he said it's more efficient to drive 15 miles to Albany. His cellular service plan includes a limit on data use and Henner said its prevented him from downloading computer-software upgrades that would push his quota over the monthly limit and result in additional charges.

Henner isn't alone.

"If you have a kid in school or a kid online it's astronomical,'' Lollie Hannan said of using a cell-based Internet connection. She lives in a part of Feura Bush that is a ''stone's throw,'' from the end of the cable line.

To the south in Greene County, nearly 80 percent of the population does not have access to Internet service at a modest 6 megabits per second, according to an earlier study.

The Adirondacks, with its high mountain peaks and vast forests between municipalities, also has large areas with no broadband service.

A major broadband overhaul would allow more people, including many vacation homeowners, to conduct business there. "It's the cheapest infrastructure play you've got for an area like the Adirondacks,'' said David Wolff, chairman of Adirondack Action, which tries to facilitate better broadband access.

Expanding broadband is cheaper than, say, building new roads.

With that in mind, the state's Broadband Initiative is putting up the $500 million in matching funds for providers who expand broadband in underserved areas of the state.

"The goal is incredibly admirable to the extent that they can pull it off,'' Wolff said.

Bids from companies or groups that want to participate in the initiative were due April 15. Empire State Development, which will award the money through its regional offices, is reviewing the bids, said Jason Conwall, an agency spokesman.

"All applicants must meet the governor's goals for funding, which include addressing unserved or underserved communities, providing a minimum download speed of 100 Mbps (25 Mbps in the most remote areas), and completing project construction by December 2018," Conwall said in a written statement. He added that this program makes New York the largest single broadband investor in the nation.

But Henner contends the devil will be in the details and how they are carried out.

Specifically, he said, the requirement that participants provide download speeds of at least 100 Mbps or 25 in the most remote areas raises questions about the potential scope of expansions.

He fears bidders may want to simply upgrade their existing systems while avoiding the more costly process of reaching unserved areas.

Others agree that for remote households any level of service would be welcome.

"We believe New Yorkers will prefer connections at a lower speed than no connection at all,'' wrote Sameer Mithal, who has a company that wants to use "white space" or unused TV broadcast frequencies to transmit broadband to rural areas. His comments were included in the "Request for Information'' documents that Henner obtained from ESD.

"In many rural areas even 15 Mbps would be a significant improvement,'' wrote Sharon Pitt, chief information officer at Binghamton University.

Others say the state should be pushing for higher Mbps speed, since the need for broadband space will only grow in the future as more data is streamed online.

"If you set the bar too low, that's all you'll ever achieve,'' said Phil Wagschal, president of Slic Network Solutions, which installs fiber-optic cable in rural areas.

Ultimately, Henner may eventually get broadband service, due to an arrangement in which cable giants Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications, if they merge, have agreed to expand their broadband reach in communities where they have municipal franchises. New Scotland, where Henner resides, has a franchise, but Time Warner doesn't run its cable to the more remote sections of town.

The companies say there are approximately 145,000 homes in their franchise communities that are unserved.

Henner, though, is seeking more detail — such as a town-by-town breakdown of those residences. While the cable companies contend that information is a trade secret, Henner has filed Freedom of Information Law requests with the state Public Service Commission, which is overseeing the Time Warner/Charter merger issue.

And he plans to file suit in an effort to halt or delay awarding of bids from the Broadband Initiative on a number of grounds. Among his contentions: the details of the program go beyond what was laid out in the law and he believes others such as members of the Legislature should have a larger voice in the process.

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU