Fiber for Lenox

Lenox is on the cusp of being connected to the worldwide web in its public buildings by fiber, as instituted by Mass Broadband 123 for western Massachusetts.

While The Berkshire Beacon has questioned its plan of connections – not using the data fiber lines along the Massachusetts Turnpike – it appears the connection in Lenox to public buildings will be made operative before July 4.

Lenox Town Manager Gregory T. Federspiel, as his final act, could ask the selectmen to institute a Lenox Broadband Committee to not only bring in the middle and last mile to the community, but to take a page from the Town of Leverett.

They have done the homework, got the community behind their endeavor, bonded for the monies and today are prepared to go forward with hookups.

As the Leverett websites notes: “The Leverett Town Meeting approved a municipal bond issue in April 2012 to finance the construction of a town-wide fiber to the home (FTTH) network to provide consistent high-speed broadband.

“This FTTH network will connect to the internet via the MB123 middle-mile project run by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI). The Leverett FTTH network will be an active Ethernet architecture connected directly to approximately 700 households…

“Once built, the network will be managed by its Municipal Light Plant (MLP) entity owned by Leverett.”

Meanwhile, the Deval L. Patrick administration announced the inclusion of $40 million in a bond authorization to support the fiber optic wiring of underserved communities for the “last mile.”

Whether one believes Lenox is underserved or not is not the question since Verizon offers DSL to parts of the community and so, too, Time Warner offers internet packages.

However, the argument can be made with this initiative that fiber will allow faster access at a reduced price for cable and may allow for television and other high-tech programming going forward.

Today, Lenox has G4S Technology of West Springfield laying the cable to public buildings.

Once the committee is formed, and design goes out to bid, state monies along with a local bond may provide the initiative to go live on fiber within a year.

What a Godsend this would be, assuming, like Leverett, everything fell into place, and we would be on the forefront of connectivity from our homes and businesses as well as our libraries, town halls and other public buildings being hooked into the network as we write.

While town expenses are increasing, the finance committee along with the school committee is looking for future alternatives to alleviate the rising costs in the budget.

Today there is no demand for a 21/2 override, but if the fiber is connected community-wide, then perhaps, like other utilities, Lenox can become the sentry for the internet in Berkshire County and consider a bond issue like Leverett. Before this, we need a broadband committee to jump-start our plans and acknowledge our costs going forward.

As to rural western Massachusetts, Lenox with Town Manager Federspiel at the forefront could appoint a blue ribbon committee forthwith to jump start the process, get town meeting approval and go out for bonding.

With fiber to the home, it increases each one’s property value without putting an undue burden on the taxpayer, but gives him access to the network at a reasonable cost.

This is a win-win for our community. And it would appear that this will jump-start the housing market, too.

Posted by George C. Jordan III on June 27, 2013. Filed under Editorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry