New Story: Sharon begins to explore owning its own cable network

Lakeville Journal

Published: May 5

By: ROB BUCCINO

SHARON —The Sharon Connect Task Force updated residents about the town’s ongoing efforts to improve local access to broadband internet service in a Zoom meeting on Thursday, April 29. Co-hosts of the meeting were Jill Drew and Meghan Flanagan.

Most of the call addressed progress toward potentially building a town-owned fiber optic cable network to provide high-speed internet connections to businesses and residents situated along all town and state roads.

Fiber optic cable transmits data faster and farther than the coaxial cable currently connecting homes and businesses to internet providers such as Comcast and Frontier, and also lasts longer before needing replacement.

To explore this option rigorously, the Task Force has requested a $30,000 grant from the town budget and has also applied for $60,000 from federal funds earmarked for internet access enhancement.

These amounts would fund an engineering study to map town thoroughfares and utility pole locations, identify optimal locations for utility huts to house distribution technology, and establish cost estimates for installing and maintaining the fiber optic cable and its connections. Several engineering companies will be invited to bid on contracts for the study.

Task force members explained that in the event the town of Sharon does build and own a fiber optic network, residents would pay a private management company a regular fee covering home connections, administration costs, maintenance of cables, and emergency repairs, much as residents pay companies for water and sewer service.

Construction of the network would rely on bond issues, much as new road construction does, as well as federal and/or state grants.

“We want everyone in town to have access,” Drew said, explaining that commercial companies have historically balked at the costs of installing the many miles of cable needed to reach all of Sharon’s relatively few and widely spread-out homes and businesses.

“What we’ve mostly concentrated on is, what would it take to build something?” she said.

Regarding the requests for funding the engineering study, she said, “We are ready to go, we’ve got the pedal to the metal. If there is money, we’re going to go for it.”

Drew also noted, however, that the Task Force communicates regularly with companies currently providing service, to advocate for better local availability. Several of them have recently announced plans to expand or upgrade their broadband capabilities in the area.

She mentioned that a new commercial entry, Starlink, plans to offer advanced satellite-based internet service to the area by the end of 2021.

She also discussed the legislative initiative recently sponsored by Gov. Ned Lamont intended to compel cable companies to take measures to improve access to rural and underserved communities. While that legislation faces intense opposition and potential lawsuits from cable industry lobbyists, a vote is expected by the end of June, she said.

A video of the session can be seen on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-LVFloXXHY. The Task Force Web site URL is sharonconnect.org.