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Date: 6/18/2021
SOUTH HADLEY – The South Hadley Electric Light Department (SHELD) is celebrating a significant milestone on its path to servicing town residents by providing municipal internet services.
SHELD General Manager Sean Fitzgerald said their municipal internet service, Fibersonic, was developed and voted on in 2018. “Fibersonic was developed or voted on in 2018, so the board voted to approve the project. July of 2019 we began construction, so this July will be two years of construction,” he said.
Fitzgerald said Fibersonic was his second experience launching municipal fiber internet, as he helped when the city of Westfield launched Whip City Fiber. He said when Whip City Fiber was launched there was less interest from customers, however, when Fibersonic was launched that had changed. Fitzgerald said the COVID-19 pandemic had added a new dimension of interest all together.
“When we launched Whip City Fiber there was lesser interest about six or seven years ago. Whereas our entry was just two years ago, interest had escalated or grown. COVID poured gasoline on that, spiked the interest,” he said. “Customer interest spiked. Medical professionals, teachers, parents were forced to function on the bandwidth at home, their needs quadrupled. We don’t see that changing. We’re hearing many are still working from home, it’s a huge pendulum swing.”
Fitzgerald said one of the main reasons for the board voting to approve the establishment of fiber internet was “to enhance the quality of life in South Hadley.”
“This opportunity to construct fire was a significant way to enhance the quality of life of customers. South Hadley had participated in the construction of the Five College network, which is a major network that ran through town. That had constructed a backbone network through town,” he explained. “We already began servicing some municipal accounts in town, town buildings, schools, we had already dipped our toe in. So SHELD had already engaged in a lot of fiber activity.”
Additionally, he said they needed to replace about 8,000 meters in town anyway, so it made sense to upgrade to fiber in the process and more advanced meters. “They’re much more sophisticated meters, the data that comes from them will be transmitted over the fiber optic network. It’s dual purpose, we can service residential bandwidth and needs at the same time,” he said.
When the board voted to approve the creation of Fibersonic, Fitzgerald said they developed a five-year plan. Currently, he said they were ahead of schedule and had been able to acquire over 1,000 customers and construct fiber internet connections for about 50 percent of the town.
“It’s a pretty good accomplishment. We’re ahead of schedule for construction and doing favorably for customer acquisition,” he said.
While they were ahead of schedule, he said due to increased customer interest, they were receiving “a lot of pressure from folks who want us to speed up.” He said this was not possible due to a variety of reasons including staying on budget. “The issue is, the faster you go the faster you spend funds and the faster you exceed budgetary expenses. So far we’re on budget,” he said.
While they were saving expenses by having their own employees do much of the “make ready construction,” Fitzgerald said the COVID-19 pandemic slowed business down slightly, putting a temporary stop to in-home installations and limiting construction. “The pandemic caused us to put a halt on in-home installation for about a four-month window. We figured out protocols, went in with masks and did a pre-inquiry for installations,” he said. “We adapted. It hurt us a little, we’d be even further along if not for the pandemic.”
He said while they were able to continue construction throughout the pandemic, operations were limited due to capacity restrictions on site. He said in addition to having limited staff on site, workers also each needed their own truck and had to social distance. “It created a little bit of a logistical obstacle course. Employees couldn’t punch in, they had to go directly from home to the job site. They had to have their own trucks because they couldn’t ride together,” he said.
Fitzgerald said they had about 50 percent of the town left to construct fiber connections for, which translated to “roughly 8,000 customers to service.” He said SHELD anticipates Fibersonic being completely constructed in the town of South Hadley in two and a half years, “by July of 2024.”
Prior to beginning construction, he said they had gathered interest and received “almost 3,000 customers who’ve expressed interest.” This, he said, made hitting the 1,000 customer SHELD had serviced with Fibersonic “a huge milestone.”
“I just feel really proud and fortunate that South Hadley is able to get fiber,” he said.
Residents interested in learning more about Fibersonic or signing up for the service can do so by visiting https://www.fibersonic.com.