By DIANE BRONCACCIO
Daily Hampshire Gazette
The cooperative that has proposed building broadband Internet service in area towns has lashed out against the state agency that is withholding money for the project.
The Massachusetts Broadband Institute has also asked WiredWest member towns not to sign any agreements with the coop and said it will not allocate state money for the WiredWest network until “substantial,” and “fundamental” changes are made to the coop agreement.
WiredWest, composed of representatives from each member town, will hold a special meeting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in the old county courthouse, 99 Main St., in Northampton, to consider what actions to take.
“Just when the agreement was reaching its final form, with an anticipated signing in January, MBI stepped in to block its implementation,” said Steve Nelson, legal/governance chairman of WiredWest. “MBI is trying to control the project, despite the towns providing nearly two-thirds of the funding and repeatedly stating that this is the approach they want to take.”
Despite that assertion, some Franklin County towns have had reservations about the plan to bring high-speed Internet access to unserved or underserved communities in rural western Massachusetts.
“WiredWest has been the driving force in moving the last mile project forward,” said Monica Webb, WiredWest chairwoman. She noted that the collective has already signed up 7,000 subscribers for future service and helped 24 towns pass millions in bond authorizations to pay for their fiber optic network.
WiredWest’s rural Hilltowns have been counting on money from a $40 million Internet Technology state bond, administered by MBI, to pay for up to one-third of their broadband costs.
In its statement issued Tuesday, MBI said it believes “the current draft WiredWest operating agreement is not compatible with the best interests of the Commonwealth, the towns or their residents. The operating agreement coupled with the business plan would require substantial, in some ways fundamental, revision in order to succeed as a reliable framework for the startup and operation of a broadband service in the region.”
A statement issued Friday by WiredWest says: “It is not up to MBI, a bureaucracy in eastern Massachusetts, to decide what is in the best interests of the towns and their residents in western Massachusetts. It is the responsibility of the towns to determine the course that is in our best interests.”
“MBI’s letter follows a long series of actions that are not in the towns’ best interest,” WiredWest continues. “The revisions MBI seeks are for the purpose of furthering its attempt to control the last mile project, despite the fact that the towns are provide nearly two-thirds of the funding, while threatening to withhold funding from the organization which the towns themselves created.”
One of MBI’s objections to WiredWest’s operating agreement is that member towns would own a share of the total WiredWest fiber-optic network instead of owning the fiber-optic network built within their communities — with town and state money. This contradicts MBI’s Last Mile Broadband Policy that was approved on July 30, requiring towns to retain ownership of fiber-optic networks that are paid for by the municipalities, their taxpayers and the state.
WiredWest’s rebuttal is that it did not have input into that policy, although its representatives were told they would have a say. “WiredWest believes the elements of the policy increase, rather than mitigate, the risk to towns and their taxpayers. … The MBI claims that the WiredWest business model is not sustainable, but provides absolutely no evidence to support its claim,” says the cooperative.
WiredWest claims the towns are not transferring their network ownership to the cooperative but are “choosing to jointly own the network, and WiredWest serves as the mechanism to manage it. WiredWest is committed to repaying the debts of its members, which no other provider of Internet service is proposing to do.”
WiredWest goes on to say that the clause that towns join for at least 10 years assumes four years of network construction and six years of operation, which is necessary to build reserves to repay any town that chooses to leave the co-op.
WiredWest also faulted the Massachusetts Broadband Institute’s brief evaluation of its business plan, which listed a few concerns and promised more discussion later this month.
“It is disappointing that, in its rush to stop towns from signing the operating agreement, MBI would hint at the conclusions of a report, by a company having little experience with municipal broadband projects, that has not been finalized nor made available for examination,” WiredWest said in its statement.
WiredWest goes on to quote the summary of a business plan review WiredWest obtained from CTC consultants, which has also served as a consultant to MBI. That summary states: “The WiredWest Financial model has been well-designed and is a reasonable portrayal of its business.”
WiredWest has 44 member towns, including 33 without high-speed Internet access who are interested in WiredWest’s regional network.
The full report is available at wiredwest.net.
