Skip to main content

True high-speed Internet finally coming to Batavia

By Howard B. Owens

A family-owned communication company that has provided phone service in Genesee County for more than 100 years is bringing true high-speed Internet to Batavia.

Empire Access, an affiliate of Empire Telephone, with a location in East Pembroke, is installing fiber optics throughout the city.

The network will be able to deliver business and residential service with download speeds of 100 megabits and upload speeds of 20 megabits.

Verizon DSL only offers a 10mb down and 1mb up service in Batavia and Time-Warner's top-end service locally is 30mb down.

Senior VP Jim Baase said the prices will be better, much better, too. That 100mb/20mb service will cost only $50 a month.

This is the sixth market Empire is introducing high speed Internet in, Baase said.

"We've had great success competing against companies like Time Warner and Verizon," Baase said.

Business customers can order high-speed Internet now from Empire, said local manager Tom Hare, and delivery is about 30 days out currently.

The first neighborhood to get residential service will be in the northeast quadrant of the city, Hare said, starting in about three our four months. The rest of the city should be covered within six months.

Empire is also offering phone service over the fiber network, as well as cable TV and security systems.

All of the regulatory hurdles at the state and federal levels have been cleared, Baase said, and Empire is just starting negotiations with the city for a cable franchise agreement.

As previously reported, the city is also in the midst of negotiating a new agreement with Comcast.

Empire Telephone is a third-generation, family-owned business based in Prattsburgh. For most of its history, it's been a rural telephone network in such places as East Pembroke, Pembroke and Indian Falls where it has some 700 telephone customers (that area is also scheduled to receive a fiber network service from Empire).

Baase said Empire decided to bring a fiber because it's an open market (Verizon has shown no interest in introducing FiOS here) and it will have a large enough customer base to support the network.

"It's a very attractive market for us," Baase said. "It's densely populated and we don't like to over build where there's FiOS. We don't like to go where there's already a company like ours."

On its marketing material, Empire Access bills itself as "The Local Company," and Empire will have an office in Batavia (while maintaining a switching station in East Pembroke, where the office was located). Baase said Empire will employ people locally and hire more and more people as its local network grows.

Another Empire advantage, Baase said, is when you call customer service your call is immediately routed to a real person, rather than a long telephone tree of button pushing.

Empire has plans to expand into other parts of the county, primarily along Route 5, once the Batavia network is built.

Interested business customers (not residential yet) can contact Tom Hare at (585) 813-9861 or THare@etcnpt.com. (e-mail address corrected)

Top photo: High speed fiber-optic cable ready for installation in Batavia.

Tom Hare in Empire Telephone's current switching room in East Pembroke.

Empire Telephone's longtime facility in East Pembroke.

Bob Price

Hope they reach into Stafford-Time Warner is just too damn expensive,and with no competition, don't see an end to their semi-annual rate increases.....

Sep 17, 2014, 9:11pm Permalink
jeff saquella

50 bucks a month???....sorry I wont be buying that....my speed is just fine with tw I don't need blazing speed.....now if they lowered it to say....35 a month I would jump in

Sep 17, 2014, 9:49pm Permalink
Jason Post

If you're in the market primarily for basic internet a Fiber network is, strictly speaking, overkill. For anybody currently paying Time Warner for service at 20 Mb/s this is 5 times the speed for the same price. For anybody buying better than 20 Mb/s this a price cut and a service boost in the same package. Can't wait to hear when they go residential.

Sep 17, 2014, 10:16pm Permalink
Doug Yeomans

I think you mean 100 megabits, and 20 megabits, respectively. 100 megabits per second translates to about 12.5 Megabytes, and 20 megabits translated to about 2.5 Megabytes.

Sep 18, 2014, 8:24am Permalink
Ed Hartgrove

They will, eventually, Doug. But, you probably don't want to hold your hand over your 'you-know-what', waiting for it.

I remember when "cable" first got to Pavilion. My brother wanted to get it for my mother as a b'day present. Well, the cable ran down Route 63 (Burleigh hill), but not down River Road. BUT, the cable company said, they would run the lines to my parent's house, IF they paid for it. They quoted my brother a price of "approximately $1000 - PER FOOT, give or take a couple bucks".

He declined. Several years later, they installed a sat. dish, and, as of this past spring, the dish was still there, and still working fine. Of course, for years now, they've sent hundreds & hundreds of 'flyers' trying to get cable to each and every house on River Road, but they never got any money out of THAT home. I've got to think that, somewheres along that 25-year period, the cable company started losing money, by quoting such a ridiculous price. Afterall, they do run cable up that road, now, and KNEW back then that they eventually would.

Sep 18, 2014, 10:18am Permalink
tom hunt

It sounds from the tone of the article that at this point it is a marketing feeler. Have they started to string the backbone? I remember a discussion a couple of months ago on this forum about FIOS. Some people thought it was already in Batavia as they saw workmen stringing fiber optical cable. Or could it had been the Empire people doing the work?

Sep 18, 2014, 11:00am Permalink
Thomas Hare

Hi folks, and thanks for your comments. Actually it is our own Empire crew completing the fiber network and we are very much excited to be serving the Batavia area. If you are a business owner please contact me at thare@etcnpt.com or 585-813-9861 for a no obligation quote on Empire Access telecommunication services...thanks again!

Sep 18, 2014, 12:10pm Permalink
Kyle Couchman

Yep I know they strung the poles on swan st between Main and Ellicott I watched them do it. They said it was FIOS goin in. I just assumed it meant Verizon FIOS.

Sep 18, 2014, 12:34pm Permalink
Cheryl Liles-Chaddock

Will this be offered on the east side of Batavia? Roads off 33 , Clinton St. Rd. that TW doesnt even cover , so folks are at the mercy of Verizon. I hope so.

Sep 18, 2014, 5:17pm Permalink
Patricia Ambrose

Well, I only hope it come to East Pembroke quickly, for I live right down the street from the Main Building and my service with Empire many times sucks. Sorry to say but it does. I constantly get disconnected and have to reset the box. Sometimes It works and sometimes not, but its always when your in the middle of doing something important on the net. Yes I have had it serviced and looked at many times. So I can only hope FIOS will be better. I think they should have started in East Pembroke tho and gone to Batavia 2nd. Just my opinion. But please hurry.

Sep 18, 2014, 6:55pm Permalink
jeff saquella

dennis your paying too much...I have the fastest speed tw offers for 35 a month....call and bargain with them they will lower your cost

Sep 18, 2014, 11:19pm Permalink

Authentically Local