SHELBURNE — Comcast’s 96 percent broadband buildout for the town is underway, but going that extra 4 percent would cost the town at least $191,000 more, town officials learned this week.
Michael Duffy, chairman of the town’s Technology and Cable Advisory Committee, said the committee had requested a cost estimate, so that the town could plan how to eventually get 100 percent broadband coverage. According to the state Department of Revenue, Shelburne has 493 single family homes, and Duffy estimates that between 22 to 28 dwellings within the town’s borders will be left out of the 96 percent buildout in Comcast’s contract with the state.
Most of the “last-mile” homes that won’t be getting Last Mile broadband under this contract are located in the Frankton Road section of Patton Hill, the part of Little Mohawk Road bordering on Combs Hill, and in the Smead Hill Road area.
On Aug. 7, town officials will go to the Colrain Selectboard meeting to see if that town would be interested in adding these northern sections of Shelburne in Colrain’s fiber optic build out — with Shelburne paying the cost. They are hoping that connecting to Colrain’s broadband would be less costly than the Comcast estimate.