North Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - Resident of North Tonawanda will now have more variety in internet providers as Greenlight Networks will be expanding their high-speed fiber-optic network services to the city.
Announced Tuesday at City Hall, Rochester-based company Greenlight Networks announced their multi-gigabit services will become available to the North Tonawanda public over the span of two years as the company will invest $12.5 million dollars in network and infrastructure build-outs, bringing fiber connectivity to more than over 12,800 households in the city.
"It would be the first fiber-optic option for our residents, so it's pretty exciting," North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec told Brian and Susan on WBEN.
Mayor Tylec put this project in motion by reaching out to Greenlight Networks via a link on their website a couple years ago. From that point, Greenlight looked at the demand and decided to expand.
"They're going to be putting lines on all of our utility poles, working through permits, and a third of North Tonawanda will have access to this by the summer, and the other two thirds of the city will have it by third quarter of next year, so be patient, it's been a long time coming," Mayor Tylec said.
In a highly monopolized market, the mayor believes this will keep things competitive between the other big service providers. "Competition is always good, right? I think we're gonna get more competitive rates, higher speeds, in general, with any company, when we have more than one option."
Greenlight is partnering with Gratwick Hose Company Inc. in North Tonawanda to host its network equipment in exchange for complimentary high-speed fiber broadband service at Station #6 on 110 Ward Rd.
Greenlight has already expanded their services to other parts of Western New York as well. "I've heard pretty good things about the areas in Buffalo that have access," Mayor Tylec says. "The City of Tonawanda is in discussions with them [Greenlight] as well and people seem pretty open to it. I think Spectrum might be a little nervous. But again, competition is always good."
Plans range from 500 megabytes at $50 a month from 5 gigabytes for $200 a month, according to Greenlight's website.
"I think this leads the way for possibly bigger industries to come to North Tonawanda or anyone who has this type of internet access. People are working from home now. You know, tech companies are on the rise. I think it's really opening a new door, not just for us in North Tonawanda, but Western New York as they continue to expand," said Mayor Tylec.