As Comcast comes to Sharon, Frontier re-enters conversation

SHARON — On Aug. 8, the Sharon Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance approved the last payment to Comcast for the $1.6 million broadband rollout.

In an interview Aug. 11, Jill Drew of the Sharon Connect Task Force confirmed the decision to pay the second $800,000 installment with the town’s undesignated fund. She said Treasurer Tina Pitcher sent the check on Aug. 9. The town did not qualify for the ConneCTed Communities Grant from CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Office of Telecommunications and Broadband.

The Comcast project partners the town with the cable company for a new network of high-speed internet, ensuring faster service in town.

Frontier Communications, an alternate provider, lost on the town’s bid for the internet deal met by Comcast. Still, competition in Sharon is felt as Frontier recently began soliciting customers to join its network.

Frontier wants homeowners to replace copper landlines with its new fiber network in the Northwest Corner. Frontier offers Wi-Fi calling as an alternative to landlines; however, for many this service is insufficient when power outages or other natural disasters leave Wi-Fi calling unusable, whereas landlines would work through outages.

Drew said, “They’re old. This is the nation’s original phone system. But they’re kind of amazing because they work when the power is out.”

Frontier’s offer has been appealing to some due to the affordable pricing of Wi-fi calling. But others are hesitant to give up their landlines.

“It’s true,” said Drew, “It’s less expensive if you do the fiber network for everybody, at least for right now. As the consumer, we have no way to know what we’re going to be charged a year or two from now. The copper phone wire charges are regulated.”

Drew also noted that the people that hold onto landlines tend to be seniors.

She said, “Sharon skews older. There’s a lot of people here who want to keep their landline phones.”

Drew said residents started complaining to Sharon Connect Task Force about Frontier’s tactics. She emphasized that it was a fault of the company, not the actual workers on the line.

Sharon is not the only town experiencing issues with Frontier, as exemplified by recent filings in Connecticut. On July 11, PURA (Public Utilities Regulatory Authority) fined Frontier 2.5 million dollars for “lapses in quality services of standard.”

Latest News

Join us for


 

  

Keep ReadingShow less
Summer Nights of Canaan

Wednesday, July 16

Cobbler n’ Cream
5 to 7 p.m.
Freund’s Farm Market & Bakery | 324 Norfolk Rd.

Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park

Keep ReadingShow less
When the guide gets it wrong

Rosa setigera is a native climbing rose whose simple flowers allow bees to easily collect pollen.

Dee Salomon

After moving to West Cornwall in 2012, we were given a thoughtful housewarming gift: the 1997 edition of “Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs.” We were told the encyclopedic volume was the definitive gardener’s reference guide — a fact I already knew, having purchased one several months earlier at the recommendation of a gardener I admire.

At the time, we were in the thick of winter invasive removal, and I enjoyed reading and dreaming about the trees and shrubs I could plant to fill in the bare spots where the bittersweet, barberry, multiflora rose and other invasive plants had been.Years later, I purchased the 2011 edition, updated and inclusive of plants for warm climates.

Keep ReadingShow less
A few highlights from Upstate Art Weekend 2025

Foxtrot Farm & Flowers’ historic barn space during UAW’s 2024 exhibition entitled “Unruly Edges.”

Brian Gersten

Art lovers, mark your calendars. The sixth edition of Upstate Art Weekend (UAW) returns July 17 to 21, with an exciting lineup of exhibitions and events celebrating the cultural vibrancy of the region. Spanning eight counties and over 130 venues, UAW invites residents and visitors alike to explore the Hudson Valley’s thriving creative communities.

Here’s a preview of four must-see exhibitions in the area:

Keep ReadingShow less