Town Of Alford Massachusetts

Alford has some broadband service, but we are still lacking complete coverage. Thanks to the residents who kindly participated in this year’s Alford Broadband Survey, I can give you a more accurate representation of the internet services that are currently available to our residents. I will discuss residential services from fastest to slowest, and will note the availability of each…

Fiber

Also known as fiber-optic, this is the fastest form of internet service available. (Some people incorrectly refer to it as FiOS, which in fact is a specific form of fiber-optic service offered only by Verizon in certain metro areas.) Fiber is not currently available in Alford, but the Alford Broadband Committee is working on it.

Cable

Alford does not have Cable internet or television service. Once fiber has been established, similar but faster services will be provided via fiber-optic cables in place of the older copper-based Cable technologies.

DSL

According to our 2012 Broadband Survey, there are 15 fortunate residences in Alford that get Verizon’s DSL service. This service is limited to Route 71 (a.k.a. Green River Valley Rd), and offers sparse availability to Crooked Hill Rd, Dellea Rd, Green River Rd, Riverside Farm Rd, and Whites Hill Rd. This DSL service overflows from North Egremont, and is not technically hosted in Alford. Verizon has no plans of propagating or expanding DSL service in our town.

WiSpring

WiSpring is a line-of-sight wireless internet service (a.k.a. WISP). Our Broadband Committee worked hard to help establish tower placements for this service in Alford over five years ago. The connection speeds for this service are similar to DSL, and the installation process is similar to that of satellite internet, but it is not slow or weather-dependent like satellite internet. This service covers approximately 85% of Alford. From the Broadband Survey, it appears that some residents on the northern ends of East Rd and West Rd (and a few others) lack the line-of-sight to currently get this service.

Cellular

Verizon is the primary cellular provider for our state, but Alford does not host any cell towers. We generally get a “skip signal” from surrounding towns which tends to be unreliable. Residents at higher elevations may be able to get consistent cellular service from other towns, the best way to test consistency in your own home is with a regular cell phone. If you get consistent cellular phone service, you could get Verizon Wireless internet service for your residence. They have mobile hotspots for multiple computers, USB modems for single computer connections, and other home services. Other cellular internet providers may work on Verizon’s towers as well.

Satellite

Satellite internet was the primary high-speed internet service in Alford before the arrival of WiSpring. Satellite internet is offered by HughesNet and ViaSat (who bought out WildBlue). It is of course weather-dependent, and signal is regularly lost in inclement weather conditions. Also, satellite internet is regarded by some to not be true high-speed internet service due to its long “ping delays” (a.k.a. data packet latencies) which prevents it from being used for effective audio and video streaming, gaming, etc. However, satellite internet may be your only option if you cannot get WiSpring or other services in Alford from your residence. Note that residents along West Rd in Alford, as well as other parts of town, have difficulty getting satellite service, as it requires a clear view of the southwestern sky from any given residence.

Dial-Up

There are local and national dial-up providers, too many to bother listing here, and they can often be found in the local yellow pages. Dial-up is of course the slowest and most obsolete form of internet service, but is obviously available throughout 100% of Alford to anyone who has a regular old copper phone line from Verizon telephone.

Last But Not Least… Experience The Town Hall Hot Spot

For those of you who cannot get any high-speed internet service in your home, the Alford Town Hall has a free Wifi Hot Spot, which anyone can access with a wireless laptop, netbook, tablet, Wifi-capable phone and other Wifi devices. This hot spot is powered by WiSpring, and offers a convenient public internet location so that you don’t have to drive all the way into neighboring towns to get quick, free internet access.

In Summary

The Alford Broadband Committee will keep you posted on the latest broadband news here on Alford’s web site.  You can visit the MBI and WiredWest sites for regional broadband news as well.

Sincerely, Arthur Dellea
Alford Broadband Representative

The Alford Broadband Committee has recently been asked some serious questions by fellow residents, and here are the best answers that we can provide at the current time…

1) Can you guess when the fiber will reach Alford?

The MBI fiber-optic backbone in to Alford should be completed by June 2013. It will take some time after that to solicit bids from potential Internet service providers (ISPs) to agree on a contract, and of course to complete the installation to all the homes that want service. Making a realistic estimate is very difficult, but it could take more than a year for the project to be well under way after the backbone is complete. We will have a better idea of the estimated time as we move along the process.

2) Who will be the last mile provider in Alford?

The MBI (along with the network manager, Axia) has been building a list of potential ISPs who are interested in delivering last-mile services from the backbone. As of the last MBI phone conference, there were 20 ISPs; among these are WiSpring, which already provides service to much of Alford; Richmond Networks, which provides service to the Town office; and the planned municipally owned network, WiredWest, We are still unsure of WiredWest’s status, financing, and viability. We have submitted a series of questions to WiredWest and are awaiting their responses. Our preference is to be able to choose among multiple last-mile providers. These would probably include WiSpring as well as at least one fiber provider, to attempt to give Alford 100% service coverage. The MBI has also stated since its inception that most of our towns will most likely have a mixed fiber and wireless solution to reach 100% high-speed coverage of their residents, but that fiber will be the key to getting there.

3) Will the cost be subsidized in some manner? Will the town be asked to float a bond or to support cost of this capital improvement in some manner?

At this point, although there will likely be some town investment to complete the project, we are unsure of the extent. Much depends on what the last-mile service providers initially offer, but we have had no contact with them yet and thus can make no definitive statements. For example, Wired West has not stated how they will finance their network, although the prospect of a bond issue has been suggested. While the role of the towns in that process is not clear, we do not want Alford to be put at financial risk. We are awaiting answers from Wired West before we recommend town approval at the May Town Meeting.

Alternatively, if the town were to build out its own network and deal directly with last-mile providers, the town of course would have to come up with the funding. We are at the beginning stages of exploring what models might be developed–grants, loans, public-private partnerships, for example. We’ve learned that at least one other town, Mount Washington, is exploring building out its own network, and we are planning to meet with their broadband committee to see how they’re going about it. All in all, while there are alternatives at this point, the town undoubtedly will have to make some investment at some time in order to get broadband to its residents.

4) Can you guess what the household cost may be?

At this stage it is impossible to estimate the cost to each resident to get service to their homes. This will mostly depend on who the last-mile providers will be, what they will offer when the town bids out the project, and the size of the customer base. However, our objective remains the establishment of high-speed, reliable broadband Internet service to Alford’s residents at affordable costs. From discussions over the past few years we would shoot for a one-time installation cost of no more than about $300, and about $130 per month for a triple-play package (Internet, telephone, and television). However, note that these are very rough estimates, and again will depend upon what deals are offered by last-mile providers and the total number of subscribers.

Thank You!

We appreciate your interest and your questions, and we’ll continue to post updates on the town site when news becomes available.

Sincerely, The Alford Broadband Committee

On March 22nd 2012 I took part in an in-depth conference call, hosted by Judy Dumont (director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, a.k.a. MBI). The topics discussed in the meeting included Closing the Digital Divide, Network Infrastructure, End Use Network Connection, Broadband Availability and Adoption, as well as Milestones.

In less than 468 days, MBI’s project must be 100% completed, a fully operational backbone ready for last-mile providers. Some important milestones have already been reached in 2012…

In January, 3.5 million feet of fiber was delivered, CAI “inside plant” construction and Fiber/Strand installation started in some towns, and Conduit installation began as well.

In February, 7.25 miles of fiber was installed.

In March, the first Commercial Customer was established with Crocker Communications, providing transport back to Boston.

In April, the I-91 network should become operational for the first I-91 customer (not stated).

As of March 15th, 100% of the poles have been surveyed, 54% of the poles were estimated, 5% of the poles were licensed, and only 1% of the miles of fiber had been rolled out (7.25 miles).

As of March 19th, 90% of the Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs) had been visited, 20% had been approved, and 5% had been built ready. About 1000 unique locations need to be visited for over 1300 CAIs, so there’s lots of work to do.

Ray Purrington, a Selectboard member for Gill reported “your guys did a great job!” after the MBI’s team installed equipment at their town hall, their primary CAI. He was very impressed with their care and attention to the clean up. He said it was very refreshing given the “typical” contractors that had previously worked for the town.

As far as Points Of Interconnection are concerned; there are a total of 23 POIs and all have been visited, 7 of these sites have been engineered and submitted, 6 were approved. No sites are under construction yet, but MBI is close to the execution of agreements.

The MassBroadband 123 Phasing Plan was discussed, and Alford is in the Build Phase 2 of the plan.

About Construction Status, construction is ongoing in two locations, 7.28 miles, in Richmond the overlash is complete and in Sandisfield over 3 miles have installed.

Eight towns have been released to construction, including Agawam, Granville, Alford, Monterey, Conway, Southwick, Egremont and Tolland.

As of March 19th, Make-Ready work started in 36 towns; Amherst, Greenfield, Petersham, Ashfield, Hadley, Phillipston, Barre, Hatfield, Sheffield, Belchertown, Leverett, Shelburne, Brimfield, New Braintree, Stockbridge, Brookfield, New Marlborough, Sturbridge, Buckland, New Salem, Sunderland, Charlemont, Orange, Warwick, Deerfield, Otis, Wendell, East Brookfield, Palmer, Great Barrington, Petersham, West Brookfield, West Stockbridge, Westminster, Wilbraham, Williamsburg.

Also as of March 19th, 19 CAIs had been installed; Agawam, Ludlow, Bernardston, New Marlborough, Deerfield, Northampton, Egremont, Northfield, Granville, Pittsfield, Greenfield, Sheffield, Hadley, West Stockbridge, Hatfield, Whately, Lenox, Wilbraham, Leverett. Note that CAI installation needs to happen well in advance of the network being operational.

Market outreach continues to bring positive results. As of March 22nd, there were 20 signed up service providers to perform retail services across the network. Axia continues to consider various strategic commercial extensions including other networks, industrial parks and office towers. Current dark fiber interest includes HG&E, CenturyLink and UMASS. Axia is considering expanding its “extension approach” to facilitate community FTTP where there is committed support and funding at the community level, including early interest with Mt.Washington and Leverett. New England’s Middle-Mile interconnection strategy continues.

What’s to come the rest of this year? CAI informational meetings, Make-Ready work, fiber backbone installations, CAI installations. Phase completion targets should be developed by June 2012, and the first areas could be operational by the end of year. More information is available at Axia’s project website.

Service Providers as of March 19th include; Access Plus Communications, ayacht, blue front Telecom Group, CELT, Community WISP, CornerStone, Crocker Communications, DSCI, EarthLink, FTG Technologies, Holyoke Gas and Electric, new horizen Communications, Streamline Networks, thinking phone networks, Warwick Broadband Service, WiredWest, WiSpring, and more to come.

End Use Network Connection (a.k.a. Last Mile) Solicitations include 8 awards totaling $335,000, 3 of them are for planning and 5 for deployment. The planning grants impact 49 communities, and deployment grants provide new service availability to 1,000 homes. The MBI will be energizing providers and seeding the market as their teams develop best practices or blueprints.

Awarded Last Mile Grants for planning included WiredWest, Royalston and Leverett, for advancing their last mile network designs and plans.

Deployment grants were givent to Warwick (purchased and testing new WiMax gear), WiSpring (completed tower permit application), AccessPlus (deployed in Savoy, planning for Berkshire East), Princeton (installation completed), and GAW (working to secure tower sites).

The Last Mile Toolkit involves assembling planning information as it gets finalized into Last Mile Toolkit. Google Earth shows the MassBroadband 123 route, which is available on MBI’s website, showing locations of Points of Interconnection. Future release will include the finalized list of CAIs, data from on-going last mile analysis, and WMC assets and barriers analysis.

The MBI has received federal funding to assist small business to develop technology plans. The final stages of selecting 4 CDCs will soon be complete, and each CDC will issue an RFP to help 10 small businesses.

The MBI is building a Veterans’ Portal, they received federal funding to build an e-government website, partnering with the Department of Veterans’ Services to build the portal. This portal will make it easier for veterans of all ages and abilities to access benefits and programs, and the site is expected to go live in April 2012.

WiredWest wants to bring high speed internet to everyone in the Berkshires, here’s an easy way to help…

During the month of March, a market research company will be calling randomly selected residents of WiredWest towns to determine demand for internet services and other telecom services. This is a necessary component of preparing our business plan.

If you are called, please agree to participate in the survey.