[Hidden-tech] Broadband in under-served areas

[Matthew Crocker]

Hello everyone,

Take a look at the Pioneer Valley Connect project, it is a state  
funded Economic Development initiative to bring broadband to under- 
served areas.  Crocker Communications (my company) was chosen as the  
'Carrier of choice' by the Connect.  We have committed to the connect  
that we will re-invest back into the valley and work to bring  
broadband to areas that don't have it.  So far we have deployed a 1  
Gigabit fiber network from Springfield to Greenfield.  We now have a  
full 1 Gigabit path from Boston (1 Summer Street) to Springfield,  
Northampton and Greenfield.   We also have 155mbps (OC-3) of  
bandwidth to AT&T in Boston and 200mbps (GigE) to Sprint is going  
live next month.   We provide bandwidth for Williams College,  and  
soon Springfield College along with some other local colleges  
(contracts aren't signed yet).  We provide bandwidth to other smaller  
ISPs along with helping them get into the DSL game with Verizon.    
Network Infrastructure is *very* expensive and really can't be  
provided in the under served area with data service (ISP) alone.  We  
realized this years ago and invested in a phone switch.  We are a  
full service CLEC with a full service Class 4 & 5 TDM voice switch in  
Springfield.  We are also a full service VoIP provider with a carrier  
grade VoIP soft switch, also located in Springfield.  Our VoIP  
offering is extremely close to public launch,  we have several  
customers running in production on it today.

I'm committed to getting broadband into the remote areas of the  
Valley.   I've invested millions of dollars to that end (Thank you  
Greenfield Co-Op bank).   I need your support however.  I need to be  
able to pick up some of the 'low hanging fruit' in order for me to  
maintain profitability while I reach for the higher fruit.   Your  
local towns have been great in supporting us and The Connect.  We  
provide ISP service for almost all K12 schools in Franklin County and  
many of the towns halls up and down the valley.   We don't need state  
money to do this,  we can do it ourselves but we need to aggregate  
our revenue.    The PVC did their due diligence on carriers  they  
have chosen us as 'The provider'     If you are using dialup and not  
using Crocker you need to ask yourself why are you supporting a  
company that hasn't committed to the valley.  Same thing if you are  
using Verizon Online DSL.  Crocker DSL reaches everywhere Verizon  
Online does (we wholesale off the same network). If you are using  
Cable and can get DSL you need to ask yourself if you are helping  
your neighbors.

I can guarantee that if I had every DSL customer in Franklin county  
that can get DSL now I would have the revenue to deploy DSL/Wireless/ 
Broadband to the undeserved towns in the area.  I have committed that  
to The Connect.    I have also tried to provide as much support to as  
many grass roots efforts as I can.

Sure, our DSL is a couple dollars more per month but the money stays  
local.  Crocker Communications, Inc paid over $1 Million in wages and  
salaries last year,  all but one of our employees lives in Western MA

Very soon we'll have a service similar to Vonage, local VoIP served  
from a local switch,  I can't compete with their pricing but I can  
come pretty close and again the money stays local.

If you already are a Crocker customer I deeply thank you for your  
support.    If you aren't a customer, give our support/sales a call  
and switch.  It really isn't painful, we don't bite.  We are a tiny  
company in comparison to Comcast & Verizon buy hey, thats what makes  
this so much fun!

If you ever have a bad experience with Crocker, our network or one of  
my employees please feel free to contact me directly.  We do try hard  
but we are human and do make mistakes.  We pride ourselves in how we  
recover from those mistakes.

Oh, and the HIdden-Tech list is running on the Crocker network from a  
machine in our colo (Thanks Rich).

-Matt


--
Matthew S. Crocker
President
Crocker Communications, Inc.
PO BOX 710
Greenfield, MA 01302-0710
http://www.crocker.com