PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Charter Communications has submitted a proposal to roll out broadband to nearly a quarter of the remaining households without high-speed internet access.

 

The Massachusetts Broadband Institute has qualified the proposal and if the six towns - three of which are in the Berkshires - approve will enter negotiations to make it happen. The company would then expand its network and offerings - including cabled, internet, and phone - to 5,000 households. 

 

"This is a strong proposal Charter has put on the table," said MBI Chairman Peter Larkin. "This is a big bite of the apple and at no cost to the communities."

 

The six towns in this proposal are Egremont, Hancock, Monterey, New Salem, Princeton, and Shutesbury. Larkin says there are 40 communities unserved by high-speed internet and some 40,000 households. But, it may be somewhat dependent on all of the towns sticking together to hit the critical mass to make it happen. MBI is asking the Boards of Selectmen to strongly consider the proposal and issue an approval by March 24.

 

The broadband expansion has been more than a decade in the making. The MBI rolled out a massive middle mile program, connecting public buildings throughout the underserved and unserved areas to fiber internet. But, completing what is know as the "last mile" has been a stumbling block for years. A number of different models to roll out broadband had been considered.

 

Gov. Charlie Baker put a temporary halt to the MBI's operations after taking office and restructured the program. The revamped MBI concept then changed to become more of a patchwork rollout with individual towns considering a variety of options. The idea was to move away from a "one size fits all" method to meeting needs and desires of towns.

 

"In the previous models, there was a commitment on the towns to pick up two-thirds of the cost," Larkin said. "In May last year we determined that was an unworkable proposition."

 

The state is now incentivizing private companies to rollout internet, in this case close to $5 million is eyed to help this along. The MBI would covering the town's share of a build out. Charter would be required to provide internet service to at least 96 percent of the households in each town. The residents will have the option of purchasing any or all of the offered services.

 

"For each town, this proposal has numerous benefits, including zero cost to the town, expedited timeline for construction, and broadband connections that are competitive with connected towns throughout Massachusetts," Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Executive Director Tim Connelly. 

 

"If each of the six towns opts-in, that would cover roughly 25 percent of the remaining citizens in the unserved towns, which would mark significant progress toward our goal of closing the digital divide in the Commonwealth. We are pleased to offer these six towns the option of a zero-cost Last Mile solution that will put them directly into the construction pipeline."

 

The criticism of this method, however, has been that the new program opens the door for companies to provide lower quality services. Larkin, however, said the previous methods of pushing for a fiber to the home infrastructure left few options for towns to actually get it.

 

"We have this pursuit of a fiber only solution when it is not necessary," Larkin said. "In some ways the perfect has been the enemy of the good." 

 

In this particular proposal, Charter is proposing a hybrid network by using a fiber backbone to the system and then using coaxial to the homes. Larkin says the company will need to provide at least service levels according to the Federal Communication Commission standards for broadband.

 

"Charter is bring faster speeds. They can meet the needs of the market place," Larkin said, calling the quality of the service as the best going on right now in the market.

 

The proposal is exactly like the one it had made to expand coverage in Lanesborough, Hinsdale, and West Stockbridge. That has been ongoing and slowly those towns have been coming online and if this latest proposal is approved, Charter would expand its footprint. 

 

"This is a continuation of Berkshire County," Larkin said. 

 

Of note, Charter had completed a merger with Time Warner Cable in recent years.

 

The MBI has issued a private provider request for proposal in November to ask companies to suggest ways to expand broadband into the unserved areas. Larkin said the Charter proposal was just the first to be qualified but other private providers have submitted proposals for various areas. 

 

The MBI is funded through a $50 million bond bill issued in 2014.