When Candace Cihocki-Ahern and Bill Ahern bought their Stockbridge home in July, they were told their new digs included internet access, Cihocki-Ahern said. After all, the property was only about a minute’s drive from the town center. However, the couple was shocked to find out that terminology meant DSL, or a digital subscriber line, the antiquated internet connection that requires a phone jack and is generally slower and less reliable than cable or fiber internet.
“Spectrum and several other internet companies told us we weren’t serviceable,” Cihocki-Ahern said. With both her and her husband working remotely from home, that was a big problem. Aside from three homes on their block, their neighbors have Spectrum service, and an internet transmission pole exists about 225 feet from their house, Cihocki-Ahern said. Despite numerous attempts to contact Spectrum, she is still waiting for an answer.
On the afternoon of September 13, Cihocki-Ahern and Ahern sat patiently in Pittsfield’s Zion Lutheran Church with their toddler, anticipating the start of a Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) program that might offer some help. “I’m hoping to get some answers here and what I should do next because I’ve exhausted every inch that I can in order to get internet,” she said, adding that other options aren’t financially viable for the young family. “I’m just trying to figure out why we can’t get broadband fiber to our house.”
Created in 2008 with a bank of $400 million, MBI is charged with making affordable, high-speed internet available to residences, offices, and municipal sites across the state while closing technology gaps among groups. “Our goal is to get internet to everyone,” MBI Director Michael Baldino said.
The local program was an effort for MBI to ascertain what internet and technology needs exist in Berkshire County in preparation for the rollout of statewide digital equity plans. A statewide survey is also available to help determine where gaps in coverage exist and how funds should be directed to expand internet use. Here is a link to the survey.
“There’s a real desire across the state to have access [to technology], to have affordability, and to have quality of service for their connectivity—to be able to connect to the internet,” MBI Senior Program Director Jody Jones said. Funding for the statewide project—Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program—tallies $147 million, she said. Nationally, the program strives to employ high-speed internet with $42 billion in federal monies.
According to Program Manager Josh Eichen, 11 percent of Berkshire County residents don’t have a laptop, 27 percent lack an internet subscription, and 15 percent are without either a laptop or internet subscription, with those statistics having a disproportionate impact on specific population groups. Looking at survey results, about one-fourth of those responding statewide said their internet service “isn’t good enough,” one in three respondents statewide have at least some difficulty paying for internet service, and half of those responding say they lack internet at home due to cost, he said. In Berkshire County, $68 per month is the lowest cost broadband plan, the affordability gaps are greatest in Pittsfield and North County communities, and 59 percent of the county’s municipalities have little or no competition in the broadband market, Eichen said.
At the Pittsfield session, breakout discussions among attendees yielded information for program advisors as to how to use the funds specific to Berkshire County. As participants shared their experiences and ideas among small groups, themes emerged that focused on topics of affordability, including the challenge of paying for both internet and cell phone services; digital literacy, including members of the area’s aging population who may have a computer but lack the skills to effectively use the device; and education on how to use technology and the internet. Additionally, security was cited as an issue, with participants “wanting to ensure that, as we’re bringing this connectivity to communities, folks feel like they can use it and use it safely,” Jones said.
“We got a wealth of information today, not only in terms of what are the obstacles people encounter in adopting the internet, using the internet, but also we dug deep into the organizations that are out there, at the community level, doing the great work, and that we need to empower to reach people who are on the wrong side of the digital divide, ” Baldino said of the listening session. “And that is exactly what we want to accomplish in these sessions.”
However, no decision has yet been made as to how much of the total state funds will trickle down to Berkshire County, she said. “Part of the planning process is that we’re looking at where the needs are,” Jones said. “We have data that shows who is underserved, who’s unserved, but we want to layer on top of that the needs and gaps we’re hearing from communities. We’re taking all of that information and will be making investment recommendations based on the feedback that we hear.”
Eight similar presentations and listening sessions are planned across the state, with two already in the books, aiming to understand how people use the internet and what their priorities are, she said. “But this is an ongoing conversation,” Jones said. A comment period is slated for November and December, following the digital equity and broadband plan release, with a final state submission set for late 2023 or early 2024.
With its 2022 Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program, MBI is overseeing the efforts of municipalities and groups to close the digital divide, with those entities able to invest in services or infrastructure, or apply for grants to provide internet or technology assistance where it is most needed within their borders. Six southern Berkshire County towns that make up the Five Town Cable Advisory Committee—Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Sheffield, Stockbridge and West Stockbridge—formed a collaborative for purposes of the program, with Great Barrington, Lenox, Sheffield, and Stockbridge seeking to use digital innovation to support economic development, and Lee wanting to provide digital skills training to seniors and low-income residents. Lenox, Sheffield, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge desire to develop funding sources to support telehealth, with West Stockbridge hoping to offer internet hot spots in town.
As for the Cihocki-Ahern family, well, they are still living in their unsold Philadelphia home, driving to a family member’s home in Mt. Washington when in the Berkshires, simply for the internet access. Following the presentation, Cihocki-Ahern said it was comforting to be in a room full of folks who shared similar concerns about broadband enhancement in homes and workplaces as well as “to not feel so alone in my quest for internet access at our home.”
“At this point, it’s been a couple of months [since the Stockbridge home closing],” Bill Ahern said. “I think it’s very likely that we would have fully moved into our new home. There’s no point to that.”
