We moved our web design business to Brattleboro in 2001. People around Brattleboro were mostly using modems, and Sovernet was just beginning to sign people up for (relatively slow) DSL connections. We limped by, overpaid, and designed local web sites for low bandwidth knowing most people were stuck at low speeds around here.
As time went on, things didn’t really speed up much here, but friends (and competitors) in bigger cities were leaping ahead. While we were lucky to get 3-7 Mbps here, they were enjoying 200 Mbps or more.
Developments in Springfield, VT eventually caught our eye. Vtel began to offer gigabit speeds over fiber for about $35 a month or so, depending on plan. For an internet business, moving to Springfield is very tempting. I’m thinking back to when we first moved to Vermont and if had we had this choice at the time, Springfield may have won on internet alone. (This might have become iSpringfield!)
The Selectboard is properly considering municipal broadband as a Town matter, looking at it from financial and technical points of view. Part of the discussion is whether there is a need.
The board was given a report that showed that most residents were currently served by high internet speeds. This means that Brattleboro residents are currently offered high speeds if they can afford them, not that residents actually have this level of connectivity. It’s theoretically possible that everyone is well connected, but it would be useful to find out how many people really have these speeds and what they currently pay.
Some board members felt there wasn’t enough data to support the idea that low cost, high-quality internet is a necessary, immediate goal for the town. And while some members of the public spoke in favor of fiber-based connections around town as a defense against a sea of wifi signals, it seems the board could use some reminding as to why potential users of the new utility would want the to work on it.
Here are the reasons I’ve been yapping on about municipal broadband for over a decade:
– I want the best possible service. Comcast is one of the current local providers and is consistently rates at the bottom of customer service surveys. Others aren’t much better. Call Consolidated Communications to get your home business connected and it might take them 30 days to turn it on. Local service by local employees would be better. Our internet DPW!
– I want better connections and less cost. Patrick Moreland gave the Selectboard an example of a town in Massachusetts with gigabit service (1000Mbps up and down) for $23 or so a month. That sounds perfect. $50 a month for that level of connectivity would still be a good deal. High speed access in Brattleboro is currently too expensive.
– I want a local option. I am fiercely local and want as many of my dollars spent locally. I would much prefer giving my money to ourselves and investing in Brattleboro than in sending it off to hedge fund managers and overpaid CEOs.
– I like local control. Not only can Brattleboro declare itself net-neutral, but it can be protected from corporate whims, such as random add-on fees, rate hikes, and deceptive come-on offers. And high speed access would be available to all at the same low cost.
– It creates local jobs in the tech industry. Building up a small internet utility could require staff (if the whole thing isn’t contracted out) to be hired. If contracted out, I’d suggest going “local” and trying to get VTel to assist.
If you’d like super fast, gigabit fiber internet at low prices with great service, poke the Brattleboro Selectboard. They aren’t certain you’d be interested, and think you might be happy with what you have right now.
Interested
I pay over $100/mo for a 100Mbps connection via Comcast, which seems an excessive cost to me, and from my own measurements I usually only get about 25 to 30Mbps. Fiber would be great, though I live in West Brattleboro, so whether more rural areas would be served is a consideration for me. FirstLight, which bought SoVerNet, is dropping all dial-up and DSL accounts to concentrate on commercial fiber, but has no fiber in my area. I get a poor LTE signal, so for me Comcast is all that is available for now. However, Elon Musk’s Starlink system may be operational and open to customers in the very near future (some time in 2020?) which could offer a high speed wireless connection anywhere in Vermont. Perhaps some research is needed into Musk’s plans and how they might affect this area? Paying to lay new fiber might recoup few costs in the future if everyone switches to a lower cost wireless system. Lots of people don’t like Comcast either and may be inclined to switch to Starlink if it becomes available before fiber; not sure if that might also have an effect on taxes the town may collect from Comcast.
Fiber may have some advantages though, like less susceptibility to radio interference (from sunspots for example), long term costs (it’s expensive to keep putting up new satellites into low earth orbit continuously as they fall down), and supporting local business. Fiber internet would to some extent compete with existing cable internet (so there may be some legal pushback from Comcast), so maybe Starlink as a third competitor would just offer more choice and be a good thing for the area in addition to fiber.
Comcast prone to slowdowns
Like rapjr, I’m on Comcast, at my business on Putney Rd, and it does indeed frequently only run around 25-30 mbps. Late afternoons are especially prone to major slowdowns, to the point of completely quitting sometimes. Comcast upgraded my modem and it barely made any difference; the rep said the problem is the current lines at the street weren’t designed for the bandwidth they are now carrying.
FirstLight fiber optic has become available at the street, and it’s an attractive option despite the significant extra monthly expense, just to not have to put up with slow internet, but my landlord has no interest in helping (physically or financially) bring it into the building. Trying to drum up interest among other tenants but so far not enough critical mass to move the landlord.
My church downtown is putting up with Consolidated, because both Comcast and fiber would require a significant investment to run into the building from the street, and on a church’s typical limited budget that’s not gonna happen in any hurry.
At home in Guilford, we have Consolidated, and it’s actually not too bad, probably because it’s a home vs business level of usage, but we still hit late afternoon and early evening slowdowns. We can also access a very good AT&T 4G signal …which often is faster than Consolidated!