Municipal leaders from Northwest Corner towns testified at the state capital in Hartford on Monday, March 8, saying that access to internet services in the Northwest Corner is outdated or absent, with a substantial impact on business, education, telehealth and population growth.
Held by the Connecticut Legislature’s Joint Committee on Energy and Technology, the hearing sought public comment on Gov. Ned Lamont’s recently introduced legislative bill HB 6442, An Act Concerning Equitable Access to Broadband.
Among area residents testifying in support of the bill were Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) Principal Ian Strever; members of the Sharon Connect Task Force; Sharon First Selectman Brent Colley; JoAnn Ryan, president and CEO of the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce; Falls Village First Selectman Henry Todd; and former state Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64).
Communications firms testifying against the proposal included Frontier Communications, Charter Communications and Cox Communications/Atlantic Broadband. Comcast Corporation, which provides internet services in North Canaan, Falls Village, Sharon and Salisbury, was not recorded as testifying, but announced (see below) on the same day that the company was launching gigabit speed internet connectivity in these towns, among others, in the state.
Goal: increase download speed
The stated goal of HB 6442 is to establish universal access to broadband internet download speeds averaging one gigabit per second (equivalent to downloading all data on a typical DVD in approximately 40 seconds), and broadband internet upload speeds averaging 200 megabits per second, throughout Connecticut.
The proposed legislation calls for mapping current internet access across the state, creating metrics that will define well-served, adequately served and underserved communities.
Town-owned networks
One important and controversial part is called One Touch Make Ready. It would help communities establish municipally owned fiber optic cable networks faster and less expensively by simplifying the process of adding new cables to public utility poles. Some Northwest Corner towns, notably Norfolk and Sharon, are already investigating the possibility of owning their own networks.
Other provisions of the bill would amend Connecticut statutes regarding public utilities.
State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64), who attended the hearing, praised the part of the bill that called for a “real mapping,” one that documents the absence of coverage, and for making clear what the challenges are in building out infrastructure and access.
Comparing navigation of potential legal and legislative challenges of HB 6442 to “threading a needle,” she nevertheless voiced confidence that “there is a way for the State to play a part” in expanding broadband access. She also is calling for increased staffing for the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to help improve the state’s expertise in broadband issues, citing knowledge gaps there.
Northwest Corner is ‘unserved’
Much of the testimony from Northwest Corner residents focused on lack of adequate internet access and impact of these gaps on education, telehealth, working from home and ability to attract businesses and new residents to our area.
“Our local elected officials and town residents have tried unsuccessfully for more than a decade to convince Comcast to wire unserved portions of town,” testified representatives of the Sharon Connect Task Force at the hearing. The group added, “Sharon is now being forced to explore spending millions of dollars to build a municipally owned fiber-optic network. We have been losing population for years, but have an opportunity now — with reliable, universal high-speed internet — to attract families and build a robust local economy.”
Former state Rep. Willis also called the region’s broadband infrastructure “outdated” and described a “digital divide” and “economic opportunity gap due to significant areas that were either underserved or unserved by high speed broadband internet.”
Willis said that during her tenure at the state House, conversations with incumbent internet access providers made it “clear that there would be no further significant build-outs or future investments in infrastructure to bring us into a rapidly changing technology-driven world.”
Addressing the pandemic’s impact on education, HVRHS Principal Strever’s testimony described the broadband access proposed by the bill as “a necessary public utility for students to access information and learning.”
As currently written, the bill specifies no incentives or penalties to motivate broadband providers, but Rep. Horn said in an interview that “the incumbents are worried they’ll have to spend a lot of money.”
Why the providers are against it
Opposing the bill was the law firm Jenner & Block, working on behalf of Altice USA/Charter Communications and Atlantic Broadband, who testified that federal law pre-empts provisions of HB 6442.
Testimony from Michael J. Cichetti of Frontier Communications included the statement that the bill “impedes any further expansion of broadband and pulls the state back in time by restricting broadband providers with 1930s style electricity distribution regulation.”
He added that, “by allowing the state to force certain types of broadband providers (those that offer video or cable TV services) to build out to economically unfeasible areas — while excusing other types of providers — the bill simply encourages companies like Frontier to stop offering these services.”
Comcast offers gigabit speed
The hearing coincided with a March 8 news release from Comcast, one of the region’s major access providers, announcing introduction of gigabit speed internet service to customers in the Northwest Corner.
A spokesperson for Comcast said that the service will allow up to 1.2 gigabit downloading and 35 megabit uploading, which is short of the 200 megabit target stated in HB 6442 but an increase from current speeds.
Committee Chairman Norm Needleman of Essex Conn., was quoted in the Comcast press release as saying, “I’m pleased to learn that Comcast’s broadband speed increase investments will have huge benefits for not only the people and businesses in my area and the greater Eastern Connecticut region this week, but the residents and businesses in the remote Northwest corner of our state as well.”
In related news, the Cornwall Internet Committee, which is exploring how to bring fiber optic broadband to Cornwall, plans to share findings from their January 2021 local survey at a community forum on Monday, March 29, at 7 p.m. (for details, go to cornwallct.org/event/community-forum-on-cornwall-internet-survey-results-zoom).
