Municipalities research Internet options Eastport looking at models by Lora Whelan

     The Eastport Fiber Connectivity Committee is on a roll, with the city council granting at its September 14 meeting permission for the committee to begin initial discussions with Pleasant Point, Perry and Charlotte. The discussions will be about its research into changing the island city's Internet connectivity from coaxial cable broadband, traditional copper phone lines and other services to all fiber optics and whether there are any partnership or collaborative aspects that could be further discussed. They will also research whether an all-fiber change-out would allow for upgrades in cell-phone infrastructure for better connectivity around the city.       Fiber optics provides greater bandwidth and is much faster than cable; it is more reliable because it is unaffected by temperature and weather; and it provides more flexibility for the future and more, stated Ken Burke, the committee's vice chair, at the council meeting.       The committee's mission is to implement community-driven, affordable, end-to-end fiber that provides fast, reliable and symmetrical upload and download speeds and with content subscription packages to all Eastport residents and businesses. The committee has meeting information, including agendas and minutes, on the city's website and expects to have up and running by the end of September a social media page, where additional information may be found.       As part of its work to assess what model might best serve the city, the committee has been meeting with different Internet service providers (ISPs), including Consolidated Communications, Downeast Broadband Utility and most recently Spectrum. It expected to meet with Axiom Technologies the week of September 19.

Spectrum presentation on bulk program       At the committee's September 13 meeting, representatives from Charter Communications, the parent organization of Spectrum, gave a presentation based on the committee's prompt for information on the five- to 10-year vision for high-speed connectivity for Eastport and Washington County. Spectrum, like most of its counterparts, uses a hybrid approach for service delivery. It uses a fiber-optic backbone that is then used to attach coaxial cable to houses. Businesses can get 100% fiber and have a very different range of options than do residential customers, explained Melinda Kinney, Charter senior director of government relations for the New England region.       "Charter is committed to rural broadband expansion," said Kate Foye, director of state government affairs for Charter. "We're working with communities around the state." They then discussed a "bulk plan" residential program. The municipality would enter into a three or longer year contract with Charter. Every residence would be signed on to the Spectrum Internet service and would pay a bulk program fee of $35 to $40 per month for the Internet service. The city would collect the payments from individuals, either through a third-party service, through direct billing or through adding the charge to local property taxes. The city would pay Charter a bulk fee based on about 1,100 households every month, which would be about $39,000 per month or $462,000 per year. Residential users would sign up on their own for phone service and other services such as television and would receive separate bills for these services. They could also sign up with another Internet provider but would still have to pay the Charter monthly fee. If additional homes were built or came online after the initial contract, an amended contract could roll the new customers into the program. After the Charter presentation was over and the representatives had signed-off from the Zoom meeting, Chris Waite, Four Directions Development Corporation's tribal broadband consultant, who was attending the meeting because of his charge to assist the Wabanaki tribes with Internet access and expansion, explained that, to come into the city, Charter uses fiber-optic cable that is then connected to about nine "nodes" that then split off into coaxial cable to residential homes. This system "can only be split so many times and will end up not providing symmetrical service."       Another Charter talking point was the advent of Docsis 4.0., a technology enabling the next generation of broadband over cable's hybrid fiber coax (HFC) networks, delivering symmetrical multi-gigabit speeds while supporting high reliability, high security and low delay in transfer time. Waite suggested that the technology won't be available for a few years and would be for large and dense urban areas.       Committee members agreed that Spectrum's bulk program was good to know about but doubted that the city council would be interested in pursuing it.

. www The Quoddy Tides article search web design by www.chessiecrowe.com