After years of advocacy and efforts, two of Franklin County’s smallest hilltowns are set to receive wireless Broadband service.
Hawley and Monroe, together with Savoy and Florida in Berkshire County, began building a wireless Broadband network roughly two weeks ago as part of a four-town agreement, Lark Thwing, Hawley Broadband Committee chair said Monday.
Work is expected to finish in December.
After the four towns reached an agreement last month, the state gave Broadband company WiValley roughly $2.3 million to build the network. The network is not town-owned but run by WiValley, who provides Broadband to more than 50 towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. The funding was contingent on the towns coming to this agreement, as they needed to prove they had a viable plan, Thwing said. The state announced it would give Hawley $520,000 to build its network about five years ago.
State funding will cover all of Hawley’s construction costs, as wireless networks are less expensive to build, Thwing said. Other local towns like Ashfield and Charlemont are building a more expensive fiber-optic network and paying for more than half of the costs. Hawley decided to build a wireless network due to its hilly topography and sparse population, Thwing said.
“Taxpayers looked at that and said no way, no how,” Thwing said. “We are such a small, hilly community.”
The project will cover 96 percent of the four towns. At least 75 percent will receive Broadband service of 25 megabits per second (mbps) for downloads and 3 mbps for uploads, while the remainder will have access to speeds of 12 mbps for uploads and 2 mbps for downloads.
Hawley residents will pay $55 per month if they are able to access the faster speed, and $45 per month if they can only access the slower service. Phone access costs an additional $25 per month.
“Residents, homeowners, students and businesses in Florida, Hawley, Monroe and Savoy have called for reliable and affordable Broadband access since long before I was elected,” state Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, said. The project “will soon bridge the digital divide” in these communities, Hinds said. “I am excited to watch this partnership unfold and hope it brings my constituents the service they have long desired.”
Reach Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.