Western Massachusetts’ last-mile buildout has been slow but steady. The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) created the Last Mile program in 2015 as a way to connect as many residents as possible to the MassBroadband 123 Middle-Mile network—a web of fiber-optic cable that carries high-speed internet to certain facilities and main routes throughout the region. Now, all 20 of Berkshire County’s 32 towns designated as underserved by MBI have built or are establishing localized broadband networks which tap directly into that middle mile.
But these networks can take years to complete and some towns including Washington, Windsor, Becket, New Marlborough, and Sandisfield are getting a late start. Unfortunately, connectivity delays have had a devastating economic effect on many remote workers struggling to weather the coronavirus pandemic.
Erin Lenski, pilates/yoga instructor and adjunct professor of physical education at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA), knew immediately that business closures would have serious implications on her ability to teach.
Last March, Lenski began using her cellphone’s data plan to create a wifi hotspot at her home in Savoy. She attempted to teach a Zoom yoga class but it was a nightmare, she said, and she was forced to remove herself from the spring schedule at Frog Lotus Yoga, the North Adams studio where she had been teaching for six years. The studio closed permanently in July.
Lenski’s cellular connection also impedes her MCLA course prep.
“I can’t do live lectures, no way,” she emphasized. If she needs to upload a video to the college’s online portal, she travels to the North Adams Library, her husband’s workshop in North Adams, or campus to find better reception. “On the days I see my students, I’ll go a couple of hours early or stay late and upload content, but that eats into my time at home and adds to childcare costs,” Lenski said.
Over the summer, she became aware of the connectivity requirements that her children, ages 7, 8, and 10, would be relying on for school. “It put a tremendous burden on us,” she said, and left her without options. Now, all her kids have cellphones in order to create hotspots for their own devices. Lenski’s AT&T bill is almost $300 per month, assuming everyone stays within their data limits.
“We moved to Savoy to be remote, but we didn’t need to be overly dependent on technology until COVID,” she said. “I feel cut off from education and employment.”
Lenski may get access to high-speed internet after all.
For two years, the town of Savoy has been building a wireless broadband network in partnership with the neighboring towns of Florida, Hawley, and Monroe (FHMS) as part of the Last Mile program. The four-phase infrastructure project required three 90-foot fiberglass monopoles to be installed at locations in Florida and Savoy where MBI’s middle-mile cable had already been placed. From there, the broadband signal hops to 32 “access point” poles installed throughout the four-town area. Antennas placed atop these poles then wirelessly transmit the connection directly to residents’ homes, which need their own small antenna to receive the signal.
The final access point to be installed is slated for Borden Mountain, a 2,500-foot peak nestled in the Savoy Mountain State Forest—minutes from Lenski’s house.
“We expect to serve 206 customers just from that one location, so it’s a big piece of the network,” said Kirby “Lark” Thwing, FHMS Broadband Network Committee chair. 207 homes have been connected to the network as of Thursday, Jan. 21, he said.
MBI completely funded the $2.4 million FHMS project and made payments directly to WiValley, the New Hampshire-based company that built the physical infrastructure. Residents within range of an access point can contact WiValley for antenna installation and OTELCO, the internet service provider, to choose an internet plan.
The difficulty many town administrators face in connecting all rural Berkshire residents to broadband is evident in this mountainous region. According to Thwing, 30 to 50 homes in the FHMS area will never be connected to broadband because there is no way to physically reach them. “If there’s a mountain between you and a pole, there’s no way you’re going to get a signal,” he said. “If there’s a valley, you have a chance.”
Those who are in sight of an access point can install a 5-gigahertz antenna for download speeds up to 50 megabits per second. A 900-megahertz antenna will deliver a slower download rate of 25 megabits per second, but is best at receiving a signal through trees.
Florida and Savoy are the only towns in Berkshire County that chose to create a wireless broadband network. “Those with fiber networks will be very happy with the result, but it’s costly,” said Thwing.
Charter Communications requested $2.6 million in 2019 to create a fiber-optic broadband network for the town of Sandisfield alone, a rural community with only 60 more households than the town of Florida. An agreement between MBI and Charter for the Sandisfield project was signed that November but, 14 months later, utility poles are still being evaluated and replaced. In an update posted on the town’s website two weeks ago, Charter estimates that network construction will begin this May, with service to be available to customers by May 2022.
“It’s been a tough year,” said Peter Baiamonte, a freelance commercial photographer and part-time Sandisfield resident. “A lot of people are wondering when they’re going to get high-speed internet.”
Baiamonte’s Sandisfield home is located in the center of town but DSL, a hard-wired telephone-based internet connection, is the only service available to him. “We’re paying the extra money for a business plan, which is the faster one, and it’s still pretty darn slow,” he said. Only one person can use the service at a time and, even then, the speed hinders what he can do professionally.
“It’s painful checking email or posting to Instagram sometimes,” he said. “It’s impossible to upload or send large files, and I can’t get clients high-resolution photographs until I get back to my condo in New York City.”
But the pandemic compounded an already frustrating connectivity problem for Baiamonte’s Airbnb service. He rents his historic home when he and his wife are out of town, but since last March more guests have been requiring broadband access.
“Overall, we lost between $5,000 and $10,000 in rental income on dropped bookings because of our inadequate internet, which is significant,” he said. “I just had an inquiry from someone who wanted to rent the house this Friday through Tuesday but needed to work those weekdays. I suggested they find another place to stay.”
Like Sandisfield, New Marlborough officials inked a deal with Charter Communications in January 2019 to provide broadband service to 96 percent of homes and businesses in the town in two years. According to New Marlborough’s Cable Advisory Committee, Charter and its contractors are still building out the infrastructure which could continue through the summer. Only when testing is complete will residents be notified about which homes can receive service.
Judy Newman, owner of The Buggy Whip Factory in Southfield, has seen a dramatic increase in local demand for broadband. The property, which has housed many businesses since it was built in 1791, is now a robust coworking space containing 10 commercial offices, a woodworking shop, a pottery studio, and the village post office. Broadband service was in place prior to the pandemic thanks to its proximity to the New Marlborough fire station, a middle-mile hotspot.
“Since COVID, our waitlist has exploded,” said Newman. “In March, we got a million calls from people wanting to use the building because of its accessibility to the internet. We even had to put a sign on the door saying nothing is available.”
She explained that over 100 people are now on the waitlist, 75 percent of whom live in the area full-time. 20 to 30 people on an “active list” have indicated they are able to move in and use a space immediately.
“One woman from Brooklyn begged us to convert the boiler room to an office, and we did,” she said. “It’s a little patchworky but we are trying to help as many people as we can.”
Luckily, Charter isn’t the only game in town.
Monterey-based fiber provider Fiber Connect is building infrastructure in parts of New Marlborough, even though they were not awarded the town contract. “We had already invested down there, so we stood by our commitment to continue servicing the area,” said Adam Chait, founder and CEO of Fiber Connect. “Both Charter and Fiber Connect will be available to customers in certain neighborhoods, and they can choose which service they want to go with.”
For now, those neighborhoods include the Lake Buel area down Route 183 to Gedney Farm and south to The Buggy Whip Factory.
“As we start to compete and things go well, we’ll expand—although we have no specific plans yet,” said Chait. “We may build through Mill River and Hartsville because, eventually, we will connect our network back to Monterey.”
Fiber Connect began a three-phase fiber-optic infrastructure project in Monterey and Egremont in 2017. “70 percent of Egremont’s network has been built with our own money,” said Chait, and 40 to 45 percent of Monterey is “lit up,” or ready for customers.
Phase three of the project needed subsidies to complete, so Chait worked with MBI to secure a $2.2 million Last Mile grant in June 2020. Since then, he has been negotiating an agreement between the towns and MBI. “We’re very close, hopefully weeks away from getting a final agreement signed,” he said. Once phase three is complete, the two-town area will have 98 percent service coverage.
