Dryden Fiber Breaks Ground in the town of Caroline
October 27, 2025
Dryden Fiber Breaks Ground in the town of Caroline
180 miles of new construction planned for next 15 months
Caroline, NY (October 27, 2025) Residents and municipal leaders from the towns of Caroline and Dryden gathered with regional and statewide office holders to break ground on Dryden Fiber’s state funded expansion into the town of Caroline on Monday, October 27. The site of the groundbreaking will host the municipally owned local internet service provider’s Caroline based point of presence or POP. This single room facility will allow the 1,500 households in the town of Caroline to join the 6,500 households from Dryden in New York State’s first and only publicly owned and operated fiberoptic broadband service provider.
Dryden Fiber’s executive director David Makar shared, “This is a major milestone in a transformational infrastructure project. Today, over five hundred families in Caroline and Dryden are limited to dial-up or DSL internet speeds for wired internet. They have been left behind by the market and Dryden Fiber is working to deliver on our commitment to provide high speed fiberoptic broadband to 100% of the households in both towns. These are families who are excluded from the modern economy, education, and healthcare.”
The expansion is driven by a New York State grant awarded to the two towns by New York State’s ConnectAll Office for $11.6 million. The funding for the state’s program originated from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The grant to Caroline and Dryden provides funding to reach 2,711 households, build 143 miles of fiber, and helps expand access for over 6,000 residents.
United States Senator Chuck Schumer provided this statement in advance of the event, “All New Yorkers should have access to affordable, high-speed internet, ensuring greater access to jobs, healthcare, education, and economic opportunity. The expansion of Dryden Fiber into the Town of Caroline will be a major boost for broadband in Tompkins County, and I am thrilled to see the federal dollars I championed in the American Rescue Plan delivered to Upstate New York. The Towns of Dryden and Caroline know reliable, fast internet access is a necessity, and I applaud Governor Hochul’s efforts putting these federal dollars to work. I will continue to fight tooth and nail to ensure that the Southern Tier has the necessary broadband infrastructure to stay connected.”
Mark Witmer, town of Caroline supervisor, said, “Just last week I spoke to a resident who was told they could get wired service by a for-profit provider and the installation cost was going to be $18,000. This was to reach one rural household in the town of Caroline. With this state funded reimbursable grant, we can provide service to the unserved at an affordable rate, like no other service provider.”
Dryden Fiber broke ground in the town of Dryden in May of 2022 and brought on their first customers in November of 2022. Since then, they’ve expanded, installing over 50 miles of fiber, and expanding the service to reach over 1,800 households or 31% of the residents of the town of Dryden. Today, Dryden Fiber has nearly 500 paying customers and over 600 have already signed up and are on the waitlist.
“This critical funding provides much needed financial support to reach rural homes left behind by other providers. Dryden Fiber was able to hit the ground running when the grant was announced (in June 2024) and we’ve already expanded to reach hundreds of new homes with dozens already signed up under this grant funding. We’re excited to partner with the town of Caroline. We are neighbors, and the larger combined customer base provides better long-term stability for both town’s broadband goals,” reported Dryden town supervisor Jason Leifer.
Fiberoptic internet is deployed primarily on either existing utility poles, owned by power and phone companies, or through underground conduit, placed alongside roads in the public right-of-way (ROW). The first stages of construction are in network design, planning, permitting, and pole preparation (also known in the industry as ‘electrical make ready’). These steps set the stage for attaching hard wire strand to the poles and then lashing high-speed fiberoptic cable to the strands. The glass fiber offers unlimited speeds, limited only by the computers and switches located in the POPs of the ISP and the homes and businesses of customers. Dryden Fiber’s service offering starts at synchronous 400 Mbps for $45 per month. Customers and business owners can opt for greater speeds up to 1 or 2 Gbps (or more for enterprise accounts).
“Since switching to Dryden Fiber I have noticed an increase in reliability with no dropouts when compared to my previous service. I work from home in an IT field, I am now able to have a 1GB symmetrical, very reliable connection and save money. Customer support has been very responsive, something hard to find these days. I really appreciate the easy billing and payment setup and that the price they quote on the website is exactly what the bill is,” shared Dryden Fiber customer Tony Salerno, a member of the Dryden public broadband committee.
Dryden Fiber’s management and staffing structure is a combination of town employees and subcontractors. Administrative, financial, and decision-making tasks are handled by the broadband committee, the Dryden town board, and town staff. Construction and operation of the physical network is handled by subcontractors who meet with and report back to the executive director, administrative staff, and broadband committee.
Dryden Fiber uses XGS-PON technology, the gold standard in broadband networks delivering 10 Gbps Symmetrical speeds using a Passive Optical Network (PON). Symmetrical service provides equal download and upload speeds. Dryden Fiber’s network is high capacity, supporting large numbers of users at extremely fast network speeds. The network is also passive in nature, having no powered components to repeat or amplify signal, thus reducing the points of failure.
Passive networks are also extremely green and sustainable. Less powered components in the Central Office and throughout the system reduce electricity usage by 75% over traditional point to point active networks. PON networks are particularly sustainable due to the futureproof nature of fiber optics and reduction of materials required. Dryden Fiber’s infrastructure will serve the communities of Dryden and Caroline for the next 40 years using one quarter of the electricity and materials of traditional fiber networks.
The Dryden Fiber pricing strategy is to set a monthly price that can effectively compete with other ISPs in the marketplace. Dryden Fiber is a non-profit which will allow it to address its rates yearly to provide speed increases in the future.
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About Dryden Fiber
Dryden Fiber is a Municipal Internet Service Provider operated by the Town of Dryden, New York. Dryden Fiber seeks to provide a low cost, state-of-the-art internet service for all residents and businesses within the town of Dryden and starting in 2026, in the town of Caroline. Launched in the spring of 2023, Dryden Fiber is now constructing the network across Dryden and Caroline and is adding new homes and business 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.
About Empire State Development
Empire State Development is New York's chief economic development agency, and promotes business growth, job creation, and greater economic opportunity throughout the state. With offices in each of the state's 10 regions, ESD oversees the Regional Economic Development Councils, supports broadband equity through the ConnectALL office, and is growing the workforce of tomorrow through the Office of Strategic Workforce Development. The agency engages with emerging and next generation industries like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing looking to grow in New York State, operates a network of assistance centers to help small businesses grow and succeed, and promotes the state's world class tourism destinations through I LOVE NY. For more information, please visit esd.ny.gov, and connect with ESD on LinkedIn, Facebook and X.