The Good News

The State and Federally funded Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) project to bring broadband Internet capability to unserved communities in Western Massachusetts is rapidly reaching its conclusion. The fiber-optic cable network {“middle mile”) that will allow linkage to the Internet has been installed at two sites in Alford: the Town Hall and the firehouse. We expect the service to be turned on (‘lit up”) within the next two months.

However, that step is only the beginning. Connection to the Internet itself requires an arrangement with an Internet service provider (ISP). To that end, Town officials are in conversation with ISPs so that, when the MBI network is lit up, the Town Hall, Town Office, and firehouse will be connected to the Internet at state-of-the-art speeds.

The Less-Good News

As reported in the past, the MBI project brings broadband capability only to specific sites, (Community Anchor Institutions, CAIs), in each town. It is from the CAIs that towns have to figure out how to create and pay for building the “last mile” that will bring service to end users: the homes and businesses in each town. Alford is a member of Wired West, the collaborative that continues to investigate ways to develop and fund building the “last mile” in the entire unserved Western Massachusetts region. However, the costs of doing so are estimated to be at least $100 million, detailed plans remain at an early stage, and the timetable for completion is projected to run several years. A promising step is Governor Patrick’s recent request to the Legislature of $40 million to MBI toward the costs of the last mile. Even if this is approved, remaining funds will still have to be identified.

Consequently, like a number of other towns, Alford, through the Alford Broadband Committee, is actively exploring alternatives that will take advantage of the MBI “middle-mile” network and bring broadband Internet service at the highest possible speeds to the largest number of residents in the most affordable way possible. Alford will get there! We welcome your comments and suggestions.

Sincerely,
Bob Lichter
Alford Broadband Committee Member

I attended the launch of the first segment of the MassBroadband 123 fiber-optic network on Thursday, April 4th, 10:30 a.m. to Noon at the Farmington River Regional Elementary School, 555 North Main Road, Otis, MA. Speakers included MassTech CEO Pamela Goldberg, Governor Deval Patrick, Congressman Richard Neal, Congressman John Olver (Retired), Senator Ben Downing, and MBI Director Judy Dumont. Senator Smitty Pignatelli and representatives from the MassTech Collaborative, the Mass Broadband Institute, Axia, and various broadband providers and broadband committee members from western Massachusetts were also present.

After the speeches, a teacher of the Farmington River school and his students hosted a three-way live Skype presentation that connected to a school in Columbia (hosted by Viva Digital), and scientists at NASA who are currently working on an advanced telescope that will eventually replace the Hubble telescope. After the event a luncheon was hosted at the Otis Town Hall, where I had the opportunity to talk with broadband committee representatives from other towns. All in all, this was a very interesting and exciting event… the light-up of the first part of the state’s fiber network was surely a historical event to remember and be a part of.

For more information, read Broadband: The final frontier in Massachusetts.

Sincerely,
Arthur Dellea
Alford Broadband Committee Representative

Scott Stafford recently wrote an article in the Berkshire Eagle titled “Public facilities soon to get broadband in unserved communities” on March 4th, 2013. Since the article was published, a number of Alford residents have contacted me, asking how soon they can get connected to the new fiber broadband backbone that the MBI has run into the center of Alford and to the fire house.

The rumor…

Apparently a rumor has spread around Alford that fiber broadband will be available to residents and businesses within the next month. About halfway through the Eagle’s article, it correctly states the following: “This month, the first towns to receive broadband are Alford, Egremont, parts of Great Barrington, Monterey, Mount Washington, New Marlboro, Otis, Sandisfield and Sheffield.” To some extent this is true, the fiber backbone is expected to be lit up very soon, and the Alford town offices, highway, police and fire departments will get connected, as well as the town’s WiFi hot spot. However, residents and businesses in town will not be able to connect for some time to come.

Why is that?

The beginning of the Eagle’s article correctly states the following: “This phase of the project is known as ‘middle mile’ — stringing the fiber-optic cable into towns. It is the infrastructure needed to allow independent service providers to connect homes and businesses to broadband in the ‘last mile’ phase of the project. So far, 27 service providers have signed on to offer last mile connections.” This means that the “middle mile” the connections to each town’s CAIs (community access institutions) will be connected very soon… but the “last mile”, which will provide connections to Alford’s residents and businesses has not even been built yet.

When will Alford’s “last mile” be built?

Currently there is no determined date for when the last mile fiber connections will be built out. There are quite a number of factors involved. Alford’s Broadband Committee is still working on getting estimates from various providers for the last mile build-out. Funding is also a huge issue that will require quite a lot of work to figure out… the town will be responsible for facilitating and funding the build-out of the last mile network, so many funding sources must be explored to pay for the effort. Of course, the political red tape involved in researching funding options, reviewing potential builders, etc, is quite an undertaking for our small committee to work through.

How much will the build-out cost?

We have received numerous “off the cuff” estimates for a fiber build-out, ranging from $600k to $2.5M… but none of these estimates were official estimates. We have been in the process of contacting prospects for the build-out, and we are still awaiting a response from the first company that our committee met with.

What is currently available for broadband?

Many residents can get broadband service from WiSpring here in Alford, it’s a wireless service that’s equal to the responsiveness of DSL in most cases. There are still a number of residents who cannot connect to WiSpring, so satellite internet is the next option, the two common satellite providers being Hughesnet and Excede (Wildblue). Yes, satellite internet has its drawbacks, but the only other option beyond satellite is dialup internet at this time. Only a handful of Alford residents actually get Verizon DSL service from Egremont (along Route 71 and Crooked Hill) but there are probably no available DSL connections left.

Alford provides hot spots

In the meantime, the Town Hall provides a free WiFi hot spot for residents with laptops and portable devices who are currently unconnected at home. There is also a Verizon cellular hot spot in the Town Offices (a.k.a. School House) which does provide limited broadband and cellphone usage to those with compatible phones, the only way to know is to bring your phone to the Town Offices to see if you can get signal. Many people report that they can connect to Wifi and cellular from the parking lot as well.

Call to arms

Any residents that feel that they can be an asset to the Alford Broadband Committee are more than welcome to contact us. Specific areas of current concern would be funding and financing, and network engineering or communications… but if you feel that you have any expertise that you could offer to assist in our efforts, contact us and let us know. We would prefer to draw experience and expertise from residents who are willing to help our broadband effort move forward.

Rest assured

I will do my best to keep all residents informed of the broadband situation as it stands on a regular basis via posted articles here on the town’s site. If you encounter any Alford residents who want to know the current status of Alford’s broadband situation, please refer them here to the official town web site for the latest information.

For more information, read Broadband: The final frontier in Massachusetts.

Sincerely,
Arthur Dellea
Alford Broadband Committee Representative

Julie Scott, Robert Lichter and I attended one of two Massachusetts Broadband Institute meetings yesterday (Tuesday January 29th). We attended the first meeting at 3:00pm which was intended for Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs). In addition to MBI’s usual representatives, a number of Axia’s representatives were also present, as well as most of the 29 Internet Service Providers who will be contracting their services on the MBI network.

Their initial announcement was that the first branch of the fiber backbone will be lit up by the end of March or beginning of April 2013, and Alford is at the end of this first branch. What this means is that the fiber backbone will be activated and ready for service provider connections. However, this does not mean that residents will be able to connect to the fiber network, at least not yet…

The bad news is that the Alford Broadband Committee still has a long way to go, politically, financially and otherwise. The MBI has given us the fiber backbone to connect to, but it’s up to our Committee and our town officials to come up with a plan to build out the “last mile” of the network, the gap between the MBI’s backbones and your homes. But the good news is that yesterday’s meeting was very informative and productive, and gave us the opportunity to speak to several key people and service providers, expanding our viable options and helping us to keep things moving along.

In the coming months, our Committee has plans to meet with our Selectmen, with key people involved with the MBI (including Axia, WesternMA Connect, etc) as well as other service providers, including NYAir, who currently maintains our WiSpring wireless internet services for Mid-Hudson Cable. These meetings will help us to determine the most affordable and efficient way for us to get broadband internet connections to all of our residents. The two key issues that our Committee continues to work on are planning and financing…

For planning, we need to explore all options, and which options will be the most cost-effective to deploy. In general, the three options are: a full-fiber network (most expensive), a hybrid network (which could mean a mix of fiber, wireless, even copper, etc), or a full-wireless network (least expensive). There are also quite a number of specific fiber and wireless technologies that we need to explore (too many to list here) and each option has it’s price and service advantages and disadvantages.

For financing, a year ago we were given some rough estimates for a fiber built-out, and yesterday we were given current, more realistic estimates which were drastically higher than they were previously. Financing will be the most difficult part of our project, and it will likely take numerous meetings and discussions with many different people in the broadband arena to come up with a suitable, affordable plan for our town.

As our Committee continues to plow through the daunting tasks ahead of us, we will be working closely with our Selectmen throughout the entire process to ensure that our town’s best interests will be met. And of course, no plans will be put into action without Selectmen approval and input from all of our town voters along the way. The Alford Broadband Committee thanks you for your support and interest in this project as we continue to work toward bringing the latest broadband technologies to you.

Sincerely,
Arthur Dellea
Alford Broadband Representative

My wife and I attended a WiredWest meeting on Saturday, January 5th at 9:30 AM in the cafeteria at the Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield, MA. This meeting’s focus was primarily on technology, and the proposed types of fiber-optic services that WiredWest might use to build their fiber network. WiredWest would like our ongoing help with their broadband initiative, and they hope that you will consider expressing your interest in their fiber-optic network services when they become available. WiredWest is seeking at least a 50% response from their support card survey, and so far Alford’s response has been about 24%.

If you wish to show your support for WiredWest, you can fill out a WiredWest Support Card Form online, or if you have trouble submitting the online form you can pick up a mail-in WiredWest Support Card from the Alford Town Hall (not the town offices) and mail it in, they are available at the Alford Town Hall, just inside the building’s side entrance. Even if you’ve already submitted a support card (a.k.a. pledge card), WiredWest urgest you to to tell your neighbors, friends and relatives in the area about their proposed fiber-optic network.

Note that the Alford Broadband Committee takes no position on responding to the WiredWest request for suport cards. Receiving completed cards or forms from potential customers is beneficial to WiredWest, but it does not guarantee that they will provide service to Alford, nor when they might do so. Our committee continues to energetically explore multiple solutions to bringing broadband service into the town of Alford.

Sincerely,

Arthur Dellea

Alford Broadband Committee Representative