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Officials from small rural Western Mass towns met in Ashfield April 22 for an update from Mass Broadband Institute.
(Mary Serreze photo)
ASHFIELD -- At least 16 small Central and Western Massachusetts communities will decide at town meetings and local elections in May whether to authorize and approve borrowing to extend high-speed internet service to every home and business within their borders.
The pioneering towns are among 45 that currently lack residential cable or broadband. While most have expressed interest in pursuing a broadband solution, only a third so far have placed articles on their upcoming town meeting warrants asking residents if they will authorize bonding to build a fiber or hybrid network.
Articles will appear on warrants in Blandford, Charlemont, Colrain, Cummington, Egremont, Heath, Leyden, Monterey, New Ashford, New Marlborough, New Salem, Plainfield, Rowe, Sandisfield, Shutesbury and Windsor, according to a rough list assembled by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute.
Towns that won't put the matter on warrants this spring include Ashfield, Chesterfield, Goshen, Lanesborough, Warwick, Washington and Worthington, according to the list. Selectmen in other towns are in the process of making their decisions.
Massachusetts Broadband Institute director Erik Nakajima told local officials at a meeting in Ashfield last week that towns need not be in a hurry about gaining voter approval for the bonding. "Take your time," he said at the April 22 informational meeting. "If you're more comfortable putting the vote off until next year, that's fine."
Nakajima said Mass Broadband will hold a town's share of $40 million in state grant funding for more than a year. He added that towns are strongly encouraged to schedule their votes by June 2016. The grants should cover about a third of a town's cost to build the network.
Securing bond authorization at town meeting is just the first step in bringing broadband to an unserved town. Voters must also agree to raise their own taxes at the ballot box in the form of a debt exclusion override. Local officials must then submit a grant application to Mass Broadband for the town's share of state funding.
Borrowing could range from around $800,000 (Washington) to $3.81 million (Becket), representing a significant investment for the tiny towns, even though subscriber fees could eventually pay the debt service.
The town costs are based upon network miles, the number of premises, and other factors, said Nakajima.
Most towns won't schedule special elections for the debt exclusion. They will instead put the tax-raising question on their annual town election ballots. Most small-town annual elections are scheduled on or near their town meeting date, usually in May.
With local funding in hand, the towns will have other decisions to make. If they choose to join the fiber network modeled by Mass Broadband, they must select an operator. The WiredWest Muncipal Light Plant Cooperative is just one such option. Towns may conversely craft an "enterprise solution" with a private company. A third option is choosing a hybrid solution that includes both fiber and wireless broadband.
Most of the towns have formed broadband committees to study the issue.
Meanwhile, in 32 potential WiredWest towns, volunteers are busy pre-registering households, trying to reach a 40 percent threshold. So far, five towns -- Shutesbury, Wendell, New Salem, Egremont and Rowe -- have met that goal. Pre-registered households must pay a $49 refundable fee.
WiredWest says the 40 percent threshold is what's needed to make the venture profitable, and to have user fees pay debt service on the borrowing by year six.
Mass Broadband did not establish WiredWest, which is an independent organization governed by a board of directors. WiredWest is vying to act as the network operator for dozens of communities within the Mass Broadband fiber network.
At last week's meeting, Massachusetts Broadband Institute technology director Dave Charbonneau said MBI has modeled a 44-town fiber-to-the-premise network that would cost $112-119 million to build. He touched upon various network architectures ("GPON, XPON, or Active Ethernet") and described a complicated "make ready" process that would involve, among other things, conducting surveys of 62,000 telephone poles.
Charbonneau said once a town commits the funding, has their grant application approved and selects a network operator, a broadband network could be built and switched on in about two years. The entire buildout of the 44 towns is envisioned as a four-year process.
Towns such as Conway and Shelburne, which are partially served by Comcast, are eligible for a portion of the grant funding to craft solutions with the cable company. The towns won't be part of the fiber network.
Leverett has built its own network with help from MBI. Its network operator is Holyoke Gas & Electric.
Massachusetts Broadband Institute is in charge of managing state and local funding for the fiber network, and for designing and building the "Last Mile" project. MBI built and owns MassBroadband 123, a 1,200-mile "Middle Mile" fiber network that connects small-town anchor institutions such as libraries, schools, and public safety complexes.
MBI, a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, is charged with helping expand broadband in areas lacking access so as to bridge the "digital divide" and allow all communities to participate in the 21st-century economy.