Living without broadband still a reality for many towns

Date: 8/19/2016

This weekend I met two of my pals in Vermont for one of our periodic “greybeards on the road” days. We get together either in their home state or here in Western Massachusetts for days in which we go to interesting places.

I’ve taken them to the Summit House at Skinner State Park and to the Armory Museum, among other destinations, and they’ve taken me to places such as Rudyard Kipling’s house in Brattleboro, VT, and to ancient stone chambers that predate the colonists and that Native Americans say they did not build.

On Saturday my jaunt included a trip to St. Johnsbury, VT, to see the Fairbanks Museum (www.fairbanksmuseum.org), an eclectic collection of a rich Vermonter from his travels around the world. The museum staff has taken this collection and curated it in a way so it makes sense and the museum was well worth the trip.

Before we went to the museum, I spotted something that I thought was as dead as the passenger pigeon – of which the museum had two mounted specimens – a video store.

Remember those? For the youngsters: You went to a nearby retail establishment and rented movies. The moment I stepped into the store the familiar odor of plastic boxes hit me.

Both my buddy Steve and I had to see how and why this place survived and the obliging young woman behind the counter explained: access to broadband is almost nonexistent in the area and no one has any streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime.

Wow.

Now aside from movies, this means that any considerable amount of data moves at the speed of a DSL connection.

The young woman ruefully said that as long as the community doesn’t have modern Internet connection the store would be in business.

In looking at the broadband needs of rural Western Massachusetts, a report from Harvard’s University’s Berman Center for Internet and Society called the service “fast becoming a basic need like electricity and water.”

There has been an ongoing effort in this state to bring broadband to rural communities in Berkshire, Franklin and Hampshire counties, however according to a story by Curt Woodward in the Boston Globe in April, the campaign has been marred by clashes between state and local governments.

Think about your use of the web. For many people who are in business for themselves the Internet has been the vehicle to allow them to work from any location. Now imagine if your only option was to rely on slower forms other than broadband.

The question for some communities isn’t just getting broadband from a single supplier, but whether or not a municipality should offer broadband. As far as I know Chicopee is one of the largest communities in this part of the state that is considering a fiber optic municipal broadband system that would offer competition to Charter Communications that currently offers it in the city.

Discussions such as those in Chicopee are vital as both the personal and business use of the Internet increases and deepens in American society.

It’s clear that in many communities there is a monopoly for broadband services and competition in the future will be determined by the size – and potential return on investment – of the municipality.

I think Chicopee is on the right path, doing the research about a municipal service.

And while I believe broadband is indeed vital, I certainly miss the neighborhood video store. It’s too bad we can’t have both.