If you think of Internet speed as a flying mode of transportation, most of us are on a rocket with broadband while many people living in the Hilltowns are stuck riding a roofless biplane, aka DSL.
If you’ve never heard of DSL, or the shrieking grating noise a computer makes when it tries to connect to the Web via dial-up, it’s because the connection mode was widely abandoned in the early 2000s for high-speed Internet. High-speed is quick, like cruising in a jet, but who takes a jet when you can take a rocket?
For people living in the Hilltowns, Internet connectivity isn’t a matter of optimizing, it’s a matter of connecting at all.
There’s DSL, but very little broadband Internet access — the standard speed for Web connectivity that many have come to expect — for people living in the Hilltowns of Berkshire, Hampshire, and Franklin counties. The Massachusetts Broadband Institute estimates there are 26,000 homes in the Hilltowns lacking broadband access.
In 2016, the Internet has become such a core component of daily life that to live in a community without access to the Web is a hardship fewer and fewer people are willing to deal with. Lack of Internet connection is among the reasons the nation is experiencing rural flight, and an exodus from agricultural life. A population with people interested in farming needs to be sustained.
And let’s face it, if you work on a farm or in an office you need home-Internet connection. I’ll take it a step further: If you want to find work, you need an Internet connection.
So, the “last mile” project that will connect the Hilltowns to the fiber optic loop that serves many customers in Western Mass is something people have been eagerly awaiting since the I-91 fiber optic loop was completed in 2013. The project was supposed to bring Internet connectivity to all of Western Mass, but has stopped short of 45-plus Hilltown communities.
Then, in February, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration put a pause on the “last mile” project— and the state’s $40 million in funding for it — to connect the Hilltowns to broadband. The pause is to give the one-year-old administration a chance to review the project’s finances. People in the community are rightfully upset about this. And they let Baker’s rep, State Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash, hear it during a South Deerfield forum in late March where Ash was to speak about how Baker’s governorship will help people in the Hilltowns. But all the audience wanted to talk about was broadband.
Ash said the administration isn’t going to hand the Hilltowns a “blank check” to connect to the Internet. This is strange because almost a year ago to the date, Baker pledged $50 million in state money to finish the mile. What changed, Baker? Whatever it is, the governor isn’t talking.
And in the last two months the Massachusetts Broadband Institute has re-entered negotiations with WiredWest, a cooperatieve of municipal light plants that plans to build and govern the “last mile” connection. WiredWest officials have worked with communities to coordinate 44 Hilltown communities in passing municipal votes to fund the project. MBI and the state are questioning the project’s $78 million price tag, which will be funded by the state and matching contributions from towns.
I’m as much for financial prudence as the next person, but due diligence is something that should have been put to rest before Baker pledged $50 million to this project a year ago and now whatever other investigating needs to be done, should be put on the fast track. Building the “last mile” is going to take at least four years to build and deploy to homes — that means the earliest the Hilltowns could see high-speed Internet access is in 2020. This date is too far off in the future already and the people have been waiting longer than they should.
MBI and the state said the WiredWest plan is unrealistic and overly optimistic, but the business plan, which is available online at wiredwest.net, seems conservative. It assumes no increased charge in rates for the next 20 years, as well as compounded annual increases of 2 percent on utilities over the same time period. The plan does not rely on any new homes being built or residents moving to the 45 towns it will serve. The only potential for overestimate I saw was the assumption WiredWest is making about people upgrading their services over time.
The Hilltowns can’t wait. Residency in U.S. rural communities has been on a sharp decline since 2006 as people search for economic opportunity, according to the USDA. Rural communities have to be attractive communities in which to live because that’s where farms are and the nation needs farmers. No farms. No food. See the problem?
The governor needs to make Internet connection for all a priority; whatever it takes, build that last mile.•
Contact Kristin Palpini at editor@valleyadvocate.com.
