February 2025 Update
Dear Dryden Residents and Taxpayers,
Over the last 3 years, Dryden Fiber has built over 75 miles of fiber throughout town reaching over 1,500 addresses. In the next 60 days, we expect to expand our address count by an additional 1,500 addresses.
We are projecting to be at over 50% of all Dryden addresses by April 1, 2025, less than three years after groundbreaking in May 2022. Over the next three years, by the end of 2027, we aim to reach 100% of the addresses in the Town of Dryden.
Since last month’s letter to taxpayers, there have been three popular questions for the team at Dryden Fiber.
- Are you coming to my Dryden address?
- Yes, we are committed to reaching 100% of the addresses in the Town of Dryden. Dryden has about 5,800 parcels with homes or businesses and is approximately 94 square miles. We are one of the largest municipalities (land wise) in New York State and we will reach all addresses.
- When will you be here (to my house)?
- Our website (DrydenFiber.com) has the latest maps of where we provide service. The green parcels can request service today and expect an installation to be scheduled within two weeks. The yellow parcels should be available for service by March 31, 2025. The blue parcels should be available for service by December 31, 2025. The orange parcels should be available by December 31, 2026. All other parcels are expected to have service by December 31, 2027.
- What takes so long?
- The process of bringing broadband fiberoptic internet to your home can take up to a year from when we can connect your street or neighborhood to the existing network. As the entire platform must be connected, we can only expand geographically as extensions from the initial backbone network ring. We implement fiber in six stages.
- The first stage is site design: where we will put the fiber from the existing network to your street or neighborhood. Will we use telephone poles or go underground or both?
- The second stage is permitting. For each telephone pole, we need permission to attach Dryden Fiber to the pole. Permit applications limit pole counts to 150 poles per permit. There are 20 to 25 poles per mile of service. In our NY State funded MIP project, we expect to build to about 150 miles of road, over 3,000 telephone poles, and 29 distinct permits for pole construction. Each permit is reviewed and analyzed by the pole owner (usually NYSEG). If we choose to go underground, along the side of a road or highway, we need permits from the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) or Tompkins county or one of the two villages within the Town of Dryden.
- The third stage is electrical make ready. In this stage, a third party firm, with expertise in electrical work, moves the wires on each telephone pole to make room for our lines. There are required distances between the lines on a pole (specified in feed and inches) and poles generally carry electricity, telephone, and cable tv. A limited number of certified companies can make these moves to prepare for our team to add our fiber lines to the poles.
- The fourth stage is construction. This is where we take giant spools of fiber (glass) and hang it from pole to pole along an entire permit’s area (up to 150 telephone poles). We do this rain or shine, through the hottest days of the summer and through the coldest windiest days of the winter. You will see bucket trucks and sometimes digging machinery if we need to do underground work.
- The fifth stage is splicing the fiber. Once the fiber is on the telephone poles or has been added to the conduit underground, we need to splice the network together and add in a connector device for every group of 8 houses.
- The last stage is gathering the information from the construction and splicing company to make two sets of maps. One set of maps is published on DrydenFiber.com for the public to know what parcels are now “green” and can get service to their home or business. The other set of maps is shared with our installation team. The installation team needs to know where the fiber is and where the connector devices are for each customer’s address where service has been requested. Once the installation team has their copy of the maps, we begin to market the service to the newest group of homes on the platform.
Every day we are making great progress all along the network in Dryden. If you are interested in fiber optic internet service, please request service at DrydenFiber.com.
For support needs, please contact our 24/7/365 support team at 607-844-7800 or support@drydenfiber.com.
If you have any questions, please let me know at dave@drydenfiber.com.
Thank you,
Dave Makar
Dryden Fiber is a Municipal Internet Service Provider operated by the Town of Dryden, New York. The mission of Dryden Fiber is to provide reliable, affordable, high-speed, fiber-based internet access for residents and businesses. Dryden Fiber offers state-of-the-art technology and unmatched customer service. Launched in the spring of 2023, Dryden Fiber is now constructing the network across the towns of Dryden and Caroline and is adding new homes and businesses customers to the platform every day. Customers have no long-term contract and will find speeds to be 5x to 10x of other providers. For more information, visit www.drydenfiber.com.
This project is funded by the Capital Project Fund (CPF) under New York State’s award from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The following information pertains to the federal award: Federal Award Identification Number (FAIN): CPFFN0191; Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): QU6JCVSYRNK5; Assistance Listing Number (formerly CFDA Number): 21.029.