Great Barrington Working on Public WiFi Network
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. The town is working with Fiber Connect to bring seamless, free public high-speed WiFi service to downtown Great Barrington.
"We will soon be able to offer free, basic fiber optic access throughout the downtown business district from Castle and Bridge Streets north to the Elm Street area," said Selectboard member Ed Abrahams.
Abrahams has been working on this project for several years with Fiber Connect, a local company offering high-speed fiber optic internet.
Fiber Connect is handling installation of routers and cabling for Public GB, the public Wifi network. The town is approaching about a dozen property owners to arrange easement agreements for equipment installation, for which property owners are asked to pay a one-time fee of $2,000.
Property owner Richard Stanley has signed on and a new public router has been installed at his Barrington House building on Main Street. Other than the upfront costs, there are no further fees to the town or to property owners.
"Other property owners have expressed interest, and we welcome 'sponsorship' participation from any other interested businesses or individuals who want to support this project," said Town Manager Mark Pruhenski. "We will get this done one building at a time."
Fiber Connect has built out much of the downtown area's fiber optic network for private commercial and residential users; the public network is separate. Pruhenski said the town plans to participate with public routers at Town Hall and Mason Library.
The town will be contacting building owners downtown to gauge interest and to obtain easements for the exterior router, a white box of about 8-1/2" x 11' in diameter.
Anyone with questions about this public WiFi project is invited to contact Fiber Connect CEO Adam Chait, (413) 854-2109.
