GREAT BARRINGTON — Widely available public wireless internet access in downtown Great Barrington will soon become a reality, officials said today.
Fiber Connect is currently wiring and installing wireless routers for Public GB, which will be the name of the public Wi-Fi network that will be available in much of the downtown core, the town manager’s office said in a written update.
“We will soon be able to offer free, basic fiber optic access throughout the downtown business district from Castle and Bridge streets north to the Elm Street area,” said selectboard member Ed Abrahams, who has been working with Fiber Connect on the project for several years.
Fiber Connect is handling installation of routers and cabling for Public GB. The town is approaching about a dozen property owners to arrange easement agreements for equipment installation, for which property owners are asked to pay a one-time fee of $2,000.
Property owner Richard Stanley has already signed on and a new public router has been installed at the Main Street entrance of his Barrington House building. Other than the upfront costs, the town says there are no further fees to the town or to property owners.
“Other property owners have expressed interest, and we welcome ‘sponsorship’ participation from any other interested businesses or individuals who want to support this project,” said Town Manager Mark Pruhenski. “We will get this done one building at a time.”
Fiber Connect has already built out much of the downtown area’s fiber optic network for private commercial and residential users; the public network is separate. Pruhenski said the town itself plans to participate in Public GB with public routers at Town Hall and Mason Library, both town-owned buildings.
The town will be contacting downtown building owners to gauge interest and to obtain easements for the exterior router, a white box of about 8½ x 11 inches in diameter. The town has said the goal is to get about a dozen of the routers installed in the core of downtown.
Fiber Connect, a locally owned broadband company, has been working for years to wire underserved towns in southern Berkshire County, most notably Monterey, Egremont, and portions of downtown Great Barrington. The company is also exploring the possibility of bringing fiber to the Housatonic section of Great Barrington.
There are pros and cons to establishing free municipal Wi-Fi networks, according to a recent report in Netvist. Visitors to downtown often use apps on their phones to locate restaurants and other places of business. Visitors could also use the Wi-Fi to avoid data caps in their mobile phone accounts. Cell phone service is spotty in downtown Great Barrington and often drops out entirely inside brick buildings such as Barrington House and the Tom’s Toys building. Mobile-phone Wi-Fi access would address this problem.
There is also the economic development angle: Free Wi-Fi might give Great Barrington a reputation as a technologically advanced place, thereby encouraging younger people to make a habit of spending time and money in its downtown.
On the downside is the expense, but in this case, Fiber Connect is providing the broadband access free of charge and business owners and landlords are paying for the routers and the installation. There is also the matter of the weak security of public Wi-Fi networks, which can be susceptible to hackers who steal information such as passwords entered while users are connected to the network.
The town urges anyone with questions about the public Wi-Fi project to contact Fiber Connect CEO Adam Chait at 413-854-2109 or via email at adam@bfcma.com.
