How's the Internet service here?

Bringing broadband to the infrastructure of Sandisfield is tied to the property value in our town. 

Prospective home owners will be looking to neighboring towns with broadband internet connections to buy property. Even if you are a person who does not like or use the Internet, you will have a hard time selling your house. Realtors say that clients always ask them how the Internet connection is. When it is bad, they look elsewhere. 

This effects us all. Come to the town hall meeting on May 16 to find out more. 

May 7, 2015 WiredWest's Q&A at the Sandisfield Old Town Hall

May 7, 2015 WiredWest's Q&A at the Sandisfield Old Town Hall.

Sandisfield needs only 57 more people to sign up for WiredWest.

Jean Atwater-Williams presented information about WiredWest's plan to bring fiber broadband to our town. She shared some benefits which are...supporting businesses and jobs, education (on-line) for both children and adults, enable aging-in-place, bolster the tax base, and make the town more attractive to live in.

What I didn't really understand until tonight was that WiredWest is a non-profit Municipal Cooperative which means that the profits generated from this sustained broadband network would go back to the town to recoup the costs generated by building this multi-generational infrastructure. (This will have to be written into the agreement). 

Sandisfield is a Charter member of this group that is governed by over 40 participating towns.

If we get the required 40% of the town to pre-enroll, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute will contribute $1,250,000 to the project. That is a lot of money that the townspeople will not have to pay.

2/3 of the town citizens will still have to agree to borrow the $2.4 million necessary to finance this project.

It may still be 2 years before everybody is connected. Let's get this started now.

Every public street that has a utility pole or underground conduit will be able to access this fiber optic network. Lines from the street will run up to 750 feet of fiber to connect houses for free. 

The basic package will be $49/month for unlimited data at 25Mbs.

I currently pay AT&T $140 for my cell service and a 10GB data package that I use to connect my laptop and iPad...which is way too much money.

It was nice to meet some new people and Jean did a great job with the Q&A.

We'll see you all the town meeting on May 16 to vote on the bond.