(TNS) — The City Council wants a promise from an internet fiber company that it will leave no neighborhood behind as it expands into Springfield.
GoNetspeed has already brought fiber to parts of Indian Orchard and submitted 27 petitions for approvals to install fiber optic cable on poles and underground on tree belts on dozens of streets in the city.
The council delayed granting approvals until it gets an assurance about the scope of the buildout.
While some Western Massachusetts communities have negotiated with GoNetspeed to bring in competition, the company was not hired by the city and independently chose to come into Springfield, John Dullaghan, a strategist for the company, told councilors.
“We select different areas that we thought would benefit,” he said. Once permits are approved, there are sections that can be activated within days reaching 10,000 people, Dullaghan said.
The company is starting in areas that are easier because the majority of the cable can be installed on poles rather than laying fiber underground, Dullaghan said.
The permit requests are on Boston Road, Breckwood Boulevard, North Branch Parkway and Parker Street and streets off those roads. If granted, it will provide connections mainly in the Sixteen Acres, Pine Point and Boston Road neighborhoods.
Dullaghan said the company plans to install fiber in the entire city in multiple phases. The first phase is estimated to cost $50 million to complete.
While the permits like this are generally routine approvals given to a utility company, city councilors said they wanted to look at the larger issue of ensuring there is digital equity in all neighborhoods.
Because of that, and other issues, the council voted to continue the question of the permits to October to get more information about the long-term plans.
“Getting fiber to the city of Springfield is super important for our future viability,” said City Councilor Jose Delgado. “They don’t have any legal requirements to do the whole city.”
Delgado has headed the City Council’s working group on digital equity and internet access for nearly two years. He said he is concerned the company will complete a few phases and decide it is not profitable to go into the poorer neighborhoods. If that happened, he said it is unlikely other companies would be interested in coming in to provide access in those neighborhoods or the entire city.
Instead, he said he would like the city to request proposals and partner with another company or a municipal utility, such as Westfield Electric Light to have fiber installed in the entire city. Proceeds from fees people pay for the service would then be used to pay bonds to do the work.
City Councilor Zaida Govan said GoNetspeed is already in the Indian Orchard neighborhood that she represents and said it has served as a good alternative to Comcast, which continually increases prices.
“The prices in Indian Orchard are half of Comcast,” she said of the two companies’ fees. “I’m looking forward to our residents having options. I agree we should have it all over the city.”
City Council Vice President Tracye Whitfield said she is equally concerned that GoNetspeed won’t come into places such as the McKnight neighborhood, East Springfield or Liberty Heights, where internet speed and access is “terrible.”
“I’m in favor of getting a commitment they are going to do the whole city,” Councilor Malo Brown said. “There are red flags all over this. I would like to see a 100% commitment to the city.”
When city councilors asked if the company would sign an agreement to guarantee fiber is installed in the entire city, Dullaghan said he has never seen it done before. But he said he would bring the question to the company’s owners.
“We have the same approach. We start with aerial first and go underground,” he said of construction. “There are some where we have done the whole city.”
After questioning company representatives about their plans, City Councilor Michael Fenton said he was concerned about inconsistencies in blueprints and verbal explanations company officials gave for the work they were doing in the city’s tree belts.
“The thing that bothers me the most is the lack of precision,” Fenton said. “The plans need to accurately reflect precisely what they are doing in the right of way.”
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