[Hidden-tech] Internet Access

Mark D. Hamill markdhamill at gmail.com
Fri Dec 29 20:24:39 EST 2017


As was pointed out there are some municipal networks available or under
construction in western Massachusetts. They are under construction in
Holyoke, Greenfield and Leverett. Apparently Westfield has one.

A couple weeks ago I had a chat with the mayor of Northampton on a
municipal network, inspired by the discussion here back in November. He was
very informed about it and is not opposed to it but doesn't see it as a
pressing priority.

Anyone in Northampton interested in seeing the city construct such a
network might want to chime in with Mayor Narkewicz (mayor at northamptonma.gov).
He did point me to a study the city did that's about a year old. Most of it
does not address a public municipal network, but how to extend what they
have for broader city government and school use. However, section 6.1 of
the document talks about what would be required to build a public municipal
network. The mayor believes it would be more expensive to build one in
Northampton than most places because houses are relatively spread apart.

http://www.northamptonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6799

If there are enough Hidden Tech people in Northampton, we might want to
take this up as an issue for lobbying, form an ad hoc committee and get the
city council to take a stand on it. We might publish an OpEd in the Gazette
or do some sort of news conference to draw attention to the issue. I have
already addressed it with the mayor and my Ward 7 council member.

Mark

On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 6:55 PM, EJ Lafleur <ejlafleur at comcast.net> wrote:

> Your only option is to move, Charter is in Easthampton, Belchertown,
> Chicopee, Wilbraham, Ludlow, and East Longmeadow. Everyone else in the area
> with cable is Comcast
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Dec 29, 2017, at 5:46 PM, Tom Kopec <tek at acm.org> wrote:
> >
> > Move to Westfield? /snark
> >
> > My daughter is very happy with their municipal fiber service, she's been
> > on for a month and did the final Comcast disconnect today..
> >
> > Which might be a lesson for other cities and towns 'round these parts...
> > just sayin' ..
> >
> >> On 12/29/2017 4:18 PM, HTH Consulting wrote:
> >> I have gotten disgusted with Comcast. I am happy with their high-speed
> Internet access, Blast, for $79/mo, but I can’t seem to unbundle from
> everything else. Charter-Spectrum seems to be the only other access in the
> Northampton area. I will not use satellite ever again. Charter-Spectrum
> doesn’t seem to offer higher speeds than their entry-level 60. Does anyone
> know of any other options in my area?
> >>
> >> Thank you,
> >> Lesley
> >
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