As I have mentioned in a few threads on this site over the last couple of years my town is getting broadband internet as a result of a taxpayer funded grant by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for broadband internet in underserved (by broadband) Western Mass. Now Western Mass has many definitions. If you live in Boston then Worcester is Western Mass. If you live in Worcester, anything west of I-495 is Western Mass. Western Mass really begins where I-84 and I-90 intersect (almost) and goes to the NY State Line or approximately the western 2/3 of the state. While there are major portions of that territory that are civilization (think the I-91 Corridor of the Connecticut River Valley, UMASS Amherst, etc.), most small towns in that area tend to be rural and sparsely populated leading to a lack of cable TV suitors back when cable TV became popular, hence when internet became popular there was no infrastructure in place to deliver it to most of the small towns of Western Mass.
That's where the Mass Broadband Institute (MBI) got involved in building a taxpayer funded "middle mile" fiberoptic backbone throughout rural Western Mass, hooking up police and fire stations, libraries, schools and hospitals along the way and hoping that "last mile" internet providers would swoop in and build out the last mile so that rural Western Mass could have high speed internet. Well apparently towns that weren't appealing to build out a cable system in in the 80's also weren't really appealing to build out an internet ISP service in the 2010's from an investor standpoint. So the taxpayers sweetened the pot with some more taxpayer funds and each unserved town got a special grant for a last mile company to bid on for a buildout in the respective rural towns.
My town, Hancock (named for the governor and first signer of the Declaration of Independence, and home of Hancock Shaker Village, a favorite stop for Bob Vila when he had his TV shows), had exactly one suitor bid for our grant and Charter/Spectrum was the lucky winner in a closely contested dead heat photo finish race. That was about 2 years ago. I was originally asked to sit on the cable committee in town, but was later asked to step down after missing a few meetings due to work conflicts. Those guys!! So I hadn't really heard much since then and checked in with a friend of mine on the committee from time to time and found out that an agreement had finally been finalized and the town was waiting for a vote to sign an agreement with Charter/Spectrum.
Well last week we had a special town meeting to vote on the proposal from Charter/Spectrum. There were two representatives from Charter/Spectrum at the meeting. We were told by one of the representatives that they will be building out a mostly 100% fiber-to-the-home network and they will be serving 96% of residences in town under the contract. Some homes will be too far past the last pole on their road and will not fall within the 96%, but will be able to connect at their own expense. Also there are a few roads in our town that are only accessible from our neighbor state to our west, New York State and residents on those roads will not be served by fiber, but rather traditional copper coax. We were also told that there will be three tiers of service available starting at 100 Mbps, 400 Mbps and Gigabit. They said that pricing would follow their national model and there is no minimum time commitment for service, basically month-to-month. In searching I was able to find pricing for the low tier, but was unable to find pricing for the two higher tiers. I was wondering if anyone here knows what the pricing structure for Charter/Spectrum is? And is anyone familiar with Charter/Spectrum's 100% fiber-to-the-home service as far as reliability and performance? We do plan to keep our DISH Network TV package.
That's where the Mass Broadband Institute (MBI) got involved in building a taxpayer funded "middle mile" fiberoptic backbone throughout rural Western Mass, hooking up police and fire stations, libraries, schools and hospitals along the way and hoping that "last mile" internet providers would swoop in and build out the last mile so that rural Western Mass could have high speed internet. Well apparently towns that weren't appealing to build out a cable system in in the 80's also weren't really appealing to build out an internet ISP service in the 2010's from an investor standpoint. So the taxpayers sweetened the pot with some more taxpayer funds and each unserved town got a special grant for a last mile company to bid on for a buildout in the respective rural towns.
My town, Hancock (named for the governor and first signer of the Declaration of Independence, and home of Hancock Shaker Village, a favorite stop for Bob Vila when he had his TV shows), had exactly one suitor bid for our grant and Charter/Spectrum was the lucky winner in a closely contested dead heat photo finish race. That was about 2 years ago. I was originally asked to sit on the cable committee in town, but was later asked to step down after missing a few meetings due to work conflicts. Those guys!! So I hadn't really heard much since then and checked in with a friend of mine on the committee from time to time and found out that an agreement had finally been finalized and the town was waiting for a vote to sign an agreement with Charter/Spectrum.
Well last week we had a special town meeting to vote on the proposal from Charter/Spectrum. There were two representatives from Charter/Spectrum at the meeting. We were told by one of the representatives that they will be building out a mostly 100% fiber-to-the-home network and they will be serving 96% of residences in town under the contract. Some homes will be too far past the last pole on their road and will not fall within the 96%, but will be able to connect at their own expense. Also there are a few roads in our town that are only accessible from our neighbor state to our west, New York State and residents on those roads will not be served by fiber, but rather traditional copper coax. We were also told that there will be three tiers of service available starting at 100 Mbps, 400 Mbps and Gigabit. They said that pricing would follow their national model and there is no minimum time commitment for service, basically month-to-month. In searching I was able to find pricing for the low tier, but was unable to find pricing for the two higher tiers. I was wondering if anyone here knows what the pricing structure for Charter/Spectrum is? And is anyone familiar with Charter/Spectrum's 100% fiber-to-the-home service as far as reliability and performance? We do plan to keep our DISH Network TV package.
