Please forward this to friends in the January Hills neighborhood. Ask them to contact me if they want future emails on this topic (rare).
Earlier this month, Martha Field and I attended a presentation in Leverett regarding the state's Mass Broadband initiative and the awarding of a planning grant to Leverett. The following is my take on the meeting, as it effects those of us on January Hills Rd. You may already know some of this - if you know MORE, please let me know.
First, in case you're not aware, the state has funded a "middle mile" initiative (you may have heard about it this morning on NPR). Planning is now complete, construction begins today, and it is expected to take 2 years to complete. This project will build the "arteries" of a high speed fiber optic network in Western Mass. It will not provide any connections to individuals, but will make those connections easier. As you can see in the attached PDF, one of those arteries will pass close to us, coming from Leverett center and heading up the S curves.
The planning grant that Leverett received is for "last mile fiber to the homes" wiring - the "veins" coming off that artery that will bring internet to individual homes. Here is where we need to be very active. The planning exercise will develop a plan for the building of those veins in a municipally owned network (alas, one possible outcome of the planning effort is that they decide it is too expensive to do at all). In contrast to Leverett, officials in Shutesbury are taking a "wait and see" approach, as there is a larger multi-town effort (Wired West) to consider similar options. I much prefer Leverett's proactive approach (which does not in any way preclude a multi-town effort, but at the same time does not rely on it).
Shutesbury and Leverett are in communication on this, but we need to make sure that Shutesbury is doing all that it can to be fully ready to tie our homes into this backbone the day that it goes live. This requires planning now and action very soon - I worry that Shutesbury is behind the ball. Alternatively, we might consider throwing our lot in with Leverett. Martha asked specifically about this and it is perfectly doable, should Leverett choose to include us.
Why might Leverett want to include us? The idea is that the "veins" to the curb will be municipally owned and that a collection of veins can then negotiate with internet service providers for service (with all of the infrastructure in place, providers will be happy to talk). The larger the group, the stronger the negotiating position. Our neighborhood should be particularly attractive to Leverett, as we are physically close and have a relatively high housing density. Because of the latter, the wiring costs per house in our neighborhood should be relatively low. Plus, Round Hills and (I think) Kettle Hill/Sumner Mt already have in-ground conduit, ready for the fiber (along January Hills, we'll have to string fiber along the utility poles and that is, apparently, expensive both in the stringing and in the bureaucracy).
What to do now? Pressure Shutesbury to be more proactive on this issue, so that we are fully ready to connect in 2 years. Simultaneously, our neighborhood should be in communication with planners in Leverett. Make it clear that our neighborhood will have a high "adoption rate" and should be attractive to their efforts.
Why not wait for Verizon? It is possible that in the next two years, Verizon will bring us DSL, perhaps to dilute efforts such as those described above. I'll leave it to you to decide what "possible" means... More importantly, DSL is ancient technology. A direct fiber connection to each home will provide for substantially greater bandwidth, allowing for voice over IP (phone service), live video streaming, and the equivalent of cable, to replace satellite dishes, etc. DSL will soon be the equivalent of 26K dial up. Finally, having locally owned wiring, puts us in the driver seat - a much better position than our current lot.
Some links for your interest:
Mass BroadBand
Mass BroadBand 123
Map of the Middle Mile Network (open the PDF to zoom)
Story in the Gazette
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