ASHFIELD — Ashfield is one of six pilot towns to be “fast-tracked” in Round 1 of the state’s last-mile broadband buildout by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute.
Other towns selected for Round 1 approval by MBI officials include Wendell, Shutesbury, Egremont, Otis and Alford. Wendell will be meeting with MBI next week, according to Selectboard Chairman Daniel Keller.
Ashfield officials met Wednesday with MBI’s last mile implementation liaison Bill Ennen, Technical Director David Charbonneau, and Technical Program Director Todd Corcoran as the beginning of a 21-day “Readiness Assessment” process.
“Our perception is, you are eager, anxious, frustrated and happy to finally get to this level of detail,” Ennen told members of Ashfield’s Selectboard, Technology and Finance committees. “The first thing is to provide a litmus test in readiness,” Ennen said. “Beyond that, it’s a collaborative process.”
The Broadband Committee and Selectboard were given a checklist to fill out that asks several questions about what type of broadband model the town wants. For instances, does it want fiber-optic, cable extension, a hybrid system or wireless? Has the town already approved a debt-exclusion and borrowing authorization for the town’s two-thirds share of broadband costs. Does the town want a broadband connection to each home or just to those that pre-subscribe?
Also, the town is to provide as realistic data as possible about what percentage of households are likely to subscribe to the municipal broadband service. For instance, the number of households that have pre-subscribed to WiredWest might be one way of documentation, where the sign-up goal was 40 percent of all homes. In Ashfield, however, town officials believe the final take-rate among homes will be about 75 percent of all households.
What kind of financing is possible? For instance, expansion by a private Iinternet service provider might include private funding and Connect America Fund II, which is federal money that might be made available through the Federal Communications Commission for universal access.
Another question is which model of buildout will the town select. Besides expansion by a current provider for partially served towns, the choices include “light” and “heavy” multi-municipal networks, independent municipal networks and pilot projects. Light networks might be just a few towns, or towns that share electronics or services. A heavy network would be the type originally envisioned by towns when they joined WiredWest, a large regional network of towns sharing operations and maintenance services.
The $40 million available for broadband buildout for the 44 unserved towns includes $22 million for the make-ready and construction costs, and another $18 million for MBI professional, engineering and legal services. Towns also have the choice of just taking their share of state aid designated for construction costs, then hiring a separate firm for design work, using town money. Mount Washington, for instance, is doing this.
If the towns’ respective buildout models are financially sound, they will be recommended by MBI to the Gov. Charlie Baker administration and to the state Division of Local Services for funding and make-ready work.
After all plans are approved, the pilot towns would be able to start pole surveys and pole-leasing negotiations with utility companies this fall, with the build-out to start next spring or summer. Charbonneau pointed out that the ongoing Verizon labor strike and subsequent work backlog could slow down the process for some of the towns. He said the state sees the broadband buildout as a 24- to 30-month process. Under optimal conditions, he said Ashfield’s broadband could be coming alive in 2018.
Town officials said Ashfield wants 100 percent fiber-optic broadband and, when asked whether Ashfield wants to be an independent municipal network, Broadband Committee Chairman David Kulp Charbonneau to check off a box listing Ashfield as “an independent network.”
When asked, after the meeting, if this meant Ashfield would not be part of a WiredWest collaborative, Broadband Committee Chairman David Kulp said it did not close the doors to Ashfield’s being part of a regional network, or on providing Ashfield’s services to neighboring communities, such as Plainfield or the Apple Valley portion of Buckland, which can’t be accessed by Comcast.
As the meeting adjourned, Selectboard member Ron Coler said: “We’ve been very excited in the past and very disappointed in the past. But the information you’ve provided us is very different from what we’ve heard in the past. Very detailed.”
You can reach Diane
Broncaccio at:
dbroncaccio@recorder.com or at: 772-0261, ext. 277