At the Nov. 14 regular meeting of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG), Frontier Communication assured regional town leaders that there is heart and soul behind the company’s efforts to roll out fiber optic broadband to the Litchfield Hills.
“There’s actually people from Connecticut who care about what’s going on,” said Frontier’s Connecticut Director of Operations Joseph Ferraiolo.
Ferraiolo was one of three Frontier representatives who gave a report of the internet service provider’s progress installing fiber optic in the region. The presentation comes on the heels of the company receiving nearly $1 million in grants to hook up 148 locations across Sharon and Cornwall from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s ConneCTed Communities Grant Program.
The representatives’ report, however, downplayed the role of the grant money in their regional campaign. Dave St. Martin, a Hartford-based engineering and construction manager for the company who handled most of the technical aspects of the report, said that the first round of grants from the DEEP program served a “very small number” of locations, and that it would be a few months before the second round of funding is awarded.
Instead, St. Martin directed the Council’s attention to the company’s regional accomplishments and future ambitions. Frontier has already brought fiber optic to approximately 35,000 locations in the Northwest Hills Regional Planning District, and has detailed plans for about 11,000 more by the end of 2025.
St. Martin also touted Frontier’s dedication to Connecticut. “In the first three years, we’ve done more fiber in Connecticut than any other states in our footprint,” he said, referring to the company’s “Single Family Unit Build” campaign that began in 2021. He expressed fiberoptic broadband’s benefits to the Council, citing its high upload and download speeds and resistance to failure in the case of a blackout.
“Fiber is basically future proof,” he said.
Several town leaders expressed that they’ve received pushback from their constituents over implementing fiber optic cable. St. Martin upheld that the major holdup in getting people connected with fiber is “convincing everyone that it’s a good thing for the town.”
“It comes down to the residents to decide amongst themselves,” he said.
Another concern aired at the meeting came from Kent First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer, who related that apparent Frontier employees have been frightening some residents by walking around town “late in the evening” without identification or handouts. Goshen First Selectman Todd Carusillo expressed he’s received reports of similar incidents in his town.
Feraiollo promised he would get to the bottom of the behavior, stating that Frontier employees should always carry proper identification. “We’ll get it corrected,” he said.
Lindenmayer expressed his thanks, saying he wants to establish good relations between his town and the ISP: “I want to open up people’s minds to your products.”
