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Date: 11/25/2019
SOUTHWICK – With access to high speed internet becoming a larger priority for homes and businesses, the Southwick High Speed Internet Commission is looking into potentially adding a fiber optic network to the town.
Doug Moglin, the chair of the commission, said the idea to look into adding high speed internet to Southwick started six months ago when the town was approached by Westfield Gas and Electric.
“They were curious about what the options were in Southwick for potential residents as a selling point to sell some homes in the northern side of town, but our only option was Comcast. They asked if it was possible to bring their broadband service into Southwick but it turns out they couldn’t,” he said.
One of the reasons Moglin said Southwick is looking into adding a fiber optic network is some of the people in town are frustrated with how expensive Comcast is as the town’s only internet provider.
“Frankly, Comcast bills are getting out of hand. They’re paying $150 to $250 a month while Whip City Fiber is just $70 a month for gigabit ethernet,” Moglin said.
Moglin added that there isn’t any entity that could provide the service from Westfield Gas and Electric, so the town developed a subcommittee to look into the issue. He said, “We formed a subcommittee to study municipal broadband to see if it is a worthwhile endeavor to work with a fiber optic service provider to provide an alternative high speed internet solution to residents.”
He explained that one of the benefits of putting together the subcommittee is that none of its members have served on any board or commission previously.
“I’m excited to have some new blood come into this from a diverse background. At previous town meetings there was some pushback about seeing the same people on different boards, so this has been great so far,” Moglin said.
Moglin added that the Select Board also has some requirements for any high speed internet network, including that if it goes through, the entire town has to be wired to the new network.
“The Selectman would like to see the service provided to every resident, just like when cable TV came in. That was a requirement for Continental Cable that they had to wire the whole town, not just the very populous neighborhood,” he said.
One of the hurdles the commission is facing is making sure that the service they potentially settle on won’t be rendered obsolete by a more advanced network technology. “With 5G and other wireless technologies on the horizon, we want to make sure that if we’re going to commit to something like that, the payback’s there. We don’t want to be left behind with a five-year-old fiber network that is passed by 5G,” Moglin said.
Moglin said one of the next steps is to talk to Comcast and some of the wireless providers to talk about some of the details and cost of upgrading the network. “We’ve met with [Westfield] G and E, we gonna have Comcast and some of the wireless guys come in,” he said, “Then we’re going to get down to the nitty gritty around actual cost around building a network to provide gigabit or better performance to every business and resident in town.”
He added that before those meetings can take place, the commission has at least five more meetings of its own, along with some public outreach to see how the town feels about upgrading internet and the potential cost.
Moglin explained that they are looking at Westfield as an example while they are studying fiber optic networks. “We’d like to see how many people are using Whip City Fiber out of who it’s available to in order to make a financial model for Southwick. It’s a huge endeavor to get a network set up,” he said.
“Westfield’s numbers are great, they look like they’re going to be able to recover their cost and providing a great service in competition to Comcast,” he added.
Moglin said that while they have begun to dig into the issue of bringing fiber optic internet to Southwick, a hypothetical network upgrade is likely still years away.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to make a recommendation to the board of selectmen. If the town decides to proceed, it’ll be a ballot and town meeting issue. It’ll be a multilateral, multi-year issue,” he said.
Moglin added, “Ubiquitous internet is very important. It’s right up there with electricity, water, sewer, gas. You’ve gotta have it today to be productive in your job, at school and at your house.”