Last week, Pedro and Ed spoke with Adam Chait, the founder and CEO of Fiber Connect, to get some answers about how broadband infrastructure works locally.

If the solution is simple, there will be no problem. Join us to look at the issues facing Great Barrington, discuss the complexity, competing benefits, less obvious costs or consequences, and missing information explaining why things are not so simple. 

We both serve on elected boards in Great Barrington, but we are not representing those boards or the town. 

This column is a supporting program of the WSBS (860 AM, 94.1 FM) radio program. It is not that simple. It is broadcast every other Friday at 9:05 AM. Listen to the podcast here.

When Devalpatrick began his first term as governor of Massachusetts in 2007, the Internet was nothing new. Despite this, there are still many communities in rural western Massachusetts that are unavailable, including most of South County. This is an era in which business is almost unimaginable without the Internet.

Governor Patrick proposed that the legislature created the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) to bring the Internet to unserved towns here. MBI initiated a plan to create the middle mile, not to connect the Internet to every home and business, but to bring the Internet to participating towns and cities. The plan is to connect municipal buildings: city hall, police and fire station, school and library. MBI leaders believe that if the state pays for the introduction of optical fiber into cities and towns, it will be enough to incentivize private suppliers to complete the last mile and connect homes and businesses.

The plan was not particularly successful.

Private providers (Verizon, Comcast, Spectrum, Frontier) are not in a hurry to complete the last mile because the projected return on investment is not attractive. These companies do business to make money. They think that given the low population density, there is not enough money to make money. Years later, in a new program, the state added more funds as a reward for completing the last mile.

Some towns get state funds to pay private companies to complete the infrastructure (by connecting cables to homes and businesses), but this is a slow process. Other towns pay their own expenses and now have local (municipal) suppliers. Towns like Great Barrington, which are already connected to the Internet through cable and telephone companies, cannot get new funding. As a result, these towns have older coaxial cable services, which are much slower than towns that have recently used newer technology (optical cable) for wiring.

This is the short answer to why you can get faster Internet service than Great Barrington in Mount Washington, which has 165 full-time residents. But does the story end like this? Is there any way to help Great Barrington enter the 21st century?

If you have Internet in Great Barrington, you may obtain it through Spectrum as a standalone service or as part of a cable TV package. Many residential and commercial customers have complained about the decline in service or the failure to deliver the promised high-speed service. For some companies, the Internet via coaxial cable is too slow.

We interviewed Adam Chait, founder and CEO of Fiber Connect, a local start-up Internet service provider founded in 2014, to understand how broadband infrastructure works locally. In addition to being the CEO, you can often find Chait at the top of a telephone pole. This is the company.

It's not that simple: let's start with this: how do you have the guts to compete with Spectrum? The traditional view is that cable (and telephone) companies are monopolies because the cost of copying infrastructure and competition is too high.

Adam Chait: We have a generous investor who said, “Now is the time to let us provide Berkshire with better broadband.”

INTS: Does the state help?

AC: The Massachusetts Broadband Plan was created and funded during the Obama administration to introduce optical fiber to rural areas. The core infrastructure was built [by MBI], and then there was an additional push to subsidize the construction of the [last mile] in unserved areas. Some municipalities built their own systems, some turned to large companies, and others sought private ownership Supplier [e.g.] Fiber Connect. We originally did Egremont and Monterrey. We started operations in the New Marlborough and Great Barrington areas.

INTS: You mentioned core infrastructure. Can you explain how this network works?

AC: Around 2015, the middle mile was built. At that time, there were not many optical fibers available for private use in rural areas, so the country established optical fiber infrastructure to connect hospitals, schools, police stations, and fire departments. They obtained at least one (if not many) interconnection points in approximately 40 towns in western Massachusetts. This allows private providers [for example] to use high speeds. It allows us to enter and say: "We can cost-effectively build the last mile to businesses and homes."

But there is only one network and there are risks. We have seen many times that something as simple as a car accident can have a negative impact on most parts of Western Massachusetts. In the past ten years, more and more fibers have been introduced into the region for commercial use, which gives us flexibility. If there is a problem with the network, we can choose. When we first started, the state network was the best choice. We can now have alternatives and backups.

INTS: When funds can be used in underserved communities, Great Barrington is not eligible. So let's talk about another town. When you started, did you start at the fire station and then thread the cables through the poles?

Communication: Yes. Let's take Egremont as an example. Both the city hall and the library have major institutions, so there is fiber optic infrastructure from MBI. We purchased the license to plug it in and bring it to our headend, and then we started to string new optical fibers on the existing poles.

AC: The head end is the birthplace of all last mile fiber. If you think of it as a bicycle wheel, the head end is the hub in the center of the wheel, and the spokes are the fiber that leads to all households in the town or area.

INTS: What does it take to string wires on existing poles? We heard that things are not that simple.

AC: Its physical behavior is very simple. But there is a lot of preparation [called "ready"]. These poles are owned by National Grid and Verizon. The communication line is located in the lower area of ​​the pole. Then there is a gap with electricity on it. Verizon has the lower layer, and National Grid has the upper layer. When a third party (we or even Spectrum) wants to access the pole, we must apply to both National Grid and Verizon. This process can become complicated and can become very expensive. Usually, National Grid will have to upgrade the equipment, or Verizon will have to lower the equipment to make room for us. Sometimes we need to replace a pole, which can become very expensive. In the past few years, we have seen these costs rise sharply. This is one of the most time-consuming and expensive parts of the whole process.

INTS: We have been trying to provide fiber to Housatonic. Was it "ready" to postpone the project?

Communication: Yes. The preliminary estimate from the utility company is much higher than expected. In the past few months, we have been trying to negotiate with them. We are also looking for solutions, [for example] inserting conduits into the ground or adding utility poles so that we can parallel the cables to existing lines.

INTS: You propose to provide free optical fiber to Great Barrington City Center. In order to avoid the telephone poles, you decide to go over the roof.

AC: We have actually been able to walk through the basement, so nothing is exposed. In some places, the town installed pipes while rebuilding the streets. We can cross Railway Street and Main Street underground. When there are road projects, I try to encourage municipalities to build pipelines. If we don’t do it in the town, we will do it when the road is open.

INTS: What is the status of the downtown project?

AC: We still need to reach some buildings, but we are located on either side of Main Street and Railway Street.

INTS: As I said, the work you have been doing is to connect the fiber to the building, not to bring any cost to the town. When people subscribe, you can earn your money back. How is this going?

AC: Registration is always slower than people hope. That's our fault; we haven't made a big marketing or sales push yet. But word of mouth is there. Those who have signed up are very satisfied.

INTS: How long will it take you to get to any residential area outside the city center?

AC: Our initial effort now is from Monterrey to Egmont. That will take us through Butternut, Belcher Square, through GB city center, then up Castle Hill to Simon Rock, and then into Egremont. This is in the same process of preparing for negotiations. From Castle Street, we can walk towards the fire station along Bridge Street and East Street, which is in that residential area. Another impetus is to bring Housatonic [from the foothills of CHP and Dempsey's Auto Sales] to the Mill area, and then we can develop from there.

INTS: As the cable stretches along the street, can you start serving the families along the way?

Communication: Yes. Once we get a fiber and the housing is lit, we can start the service. We don't have to wait to finish the next mile.

INTS: Let's talk about Wi-Fi in the city center. Fiber Connect is working with Great Barrington town staff, downtown building owner Richard Stanley, and Southfield resident (and broadband enthusiast) Tim Newman to bring free, seamless Wi-Fi to the city center. Fiber Connect will install and maintain the system. Approximately US$20,000 in equipment costs will be raised from voluntary donations from downtown building owners. How is this project progressing?

AC: We already have fiber optic infrastructure in the city center. What we need is the cooperation of the owners so that we can install wireless access points. We are connecting the first one in front of Barrington House. We provide some dark fibers that we must run Wi-Fi.

INTS: What is dark fiber? It sounds very ominous.

AC: This is the fiber capacity that we did not use. Each fiber optic cable has many strands. We have 96 or 144 in the city center, we only used about 12, so we have a lot of extra capacity.

INTS: Will we have ugly antennas everywhere?

AC: They will be installed on a building about 10 feet tall, about the size of 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and about an inch thick. They can be painted. We will get used to them and forget them soon.

INTS: Let's go back to the original question. If the small towns around us already have fiber optic cables, why doesn't Great Barrington?

AC: Mount Washington and Mount Alford created their own municipal network. They choose to pay and own it, and outsource it to a private company to operate it. New Marlborough and Sandysfield use state funds and work with the charter [this means that the charter owns the infrastructure]. Fiber Connect has done Monterrey and Egmont and is now part of Great Barrington and New Marlborough, so we have these infrastructures.

INTS: So, why is there no fiber in GB?

AC: Great Barrington can choose to use the MBI network, but it will not receive subsidies for the construction of the last mile because it already provides services.

INTS: Unlike Mount Washington, the taxpayers of Great Barrington will not pay for operating optical fiber and competing with Spectrum. The good news is that Fiber Connect is doing its best, so the expansion will not cost taxpayers.

INTS thanks Tim Newman for providing technical advice for this column.

Do you want us to discuss any issues in the show? Do you have any comments on this or previous show? We invite you to make suggestions on topics that may be of interest and seem easy to solve. Maybe there is an obvious solution that we didn't think of, or it's not that simple.

Email your suggestions or questions to NotThatSimple528@gmail.com, or find us on Facebook.

Listen to our program on WSBS (860AM, 94.1FM) every other Friday at 9:05 am

Receive daily updates in your inbox

Would you still like to receive our weekly real estate newsletter? Would you like to receive only the real estate newsletter?

White Christmas in Irving Berlin-The Musical

Carrie Chen Gallery: GINNIE GARDINER: INTERLUSION: Recent paintings and collages

Handel and Bach: Music of the Winter Solstice

December 21, 2021, December 22, 2021 @ 07:00 pm-08:30 pm

Berkshire Bach Association presents Bach in the New Year

Web Publisher PRO website © 2021 The Berkshire Edge, LLC. all rights reserved. Read our terms of use