MONTAGUE — While the town has strongly advocated for broadband internet provider Matrix to fill in the gaps for underserved homes in town, the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable released a report this week recommending Comcast.
The public will get a chance Thursday at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to hear MassDTC Commissioner Karen Charles Peterson discuss her findings from a report released this week to explain why Comcast is the best company for the job. The MassDTC report, endorsing the cable giant, comes after a review of comments from the public and materials submitted by both Comcast and Matrix.
The report found that Matrix might not be financially stable enough to take on the broadband expansion in Montague, while Comcast has a history of building out broadband in rural communities.
“The record reflects that while Matrix proposes a fiber network and has demonstrated the necessary capacity for community outreach, Comcast has demonstrated superior financial capacity and technical capability to deploy and sustain the broadband extension project,” Peterson said in the report. “The record objectively reveals that Comcast’s grant proposal will provide the best value.”
The commissioner’s report supports an earlier announcement by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) to support the town moving forward with Comcast.
MBI, the agency responsible for distributing state money to expand broadband coverage in partially or nonserved towns throughout Massachusetts, offered several reasons for favoring Comcast.
The MBI report states that Matrix would need to provide service to at least 1,000 residential customers to sustain the new network. There are only 360 unserved homes that could be customers in Hardwick and Montague.
While Comcast proposed to only cover 65 of the unserved homes, Matrix promised to cover 173, the state agency responsible for funding the project, MBI, said that Matrix is a financial risk.
“We found several areas of serious concern, particularly with regards to the number of dependencies required to come together for the Matrix projects to be successful and sustaining,” said a report from consulting firm Tilson, hired by MBI.
Comcast will also offer lower speeds at lower costs to residents who currently do not need, or cannot afford higher speeds.
Low-income families in the targeted areas would have the opportunity to participate in Comcast’s existing Internet Essentials program, which includes residential Internet access for $10 per month. Matrix also requires a onetime hook-up fee of $500, while Comcast requires no fee.
The MassDTC report comes after months of the Montague Broadband Committee advocating for Matrix, which promised to reach almost 98.5 percent of the remaining unserved households in Montague.
“(The) state imposes its will against near universal opposition,” said Robert Steinberg, Broadband Committee member. “It completely ignores the will of the people, which was loudly and strongly expressed in a raucous public meeting on May 23.”
As a resident who lives in one of the unserved neighborhoods in the Chestnut Hill area in Montague, Steinberg said he is not done fighting against Comcast. “We still have work to do. Our committees will continue to aggressively pursue authentic broadband alternatives,” he said.
MassDTC and MBI will release a final decision by the end of this month, said Brain Noyes, a spokesman for MBI.
Thursday’s presentation is open to the public at the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center in Room 162-75 from 6 to 7 p.m.
You can reach Lisa Spear at:
lspear@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 280