Industry experts: Focus on connectivity using public/private partnerships
Bronwen Howells Walsh|The Barnstable Patriot
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For more than a decade, OpenCape laidhundreds of miles of fiber optic cableto deliver broadband service to all 15 Cape Cod towns. But access to reliable high-speed broadband remains elusive for many areas of the region.
The pandemic-driveninflux of new year-round residents and an increase in second homeowners choosing to stay on the Cape and work from home heightened awareness of the inadequacies of the region's broadband infrastructure and access.
"The number-one (request)we got during COVID was: 'We just came to our summer house … and I need a dedicated gigabitat my home,'"Steve Johnston, CEO of OpenCape, told theBarnstable County Assembly of Delegates last week. There are 162,000 households on Cape Cod, and 46% are seasonal homeowners who could live here and work remotely — if they had connectivity.
It's going to costabout$125 million to provide the same level of connectivity Capewide thatMain Street Falmouth, Woods Hole and downtown Hyannis now have access to, he said. The achieve that goal,last-mileconnections to more homes and businesses in the region willhave to be completed.
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Erin Perry, deputy director of the Cape Cod Commission, said she and her staff are seeking money to pay a consultantto assess the current network and gaps in service,examine broadband access affordability countywide, and identify communities that have a lack of access.
Perry estimated the assessment would takesix monthsto a year to complete.
Building a fiber-optic network on Cape Cod
In 2013, OpenCape'snetwork went live with 350 miles of fiber optic cable covering all 15 towns on the Cape, Nantucket, and38 towns in southeastMassachusetts thatconnect to Boston and Providence.
Since then,the network has grown exponentially,Johnston said."We now have 550 miles of fiber (optic cable). We cover92% of the largest business customerson Cape Cod (with 200 or more employees)."
Yet OpenCape business customers are currently using less than 2% of the network's data capacity, he said.
"Right now, I could pump the entire internet traffic through the fiber we have. It'sjust investing in that 'last-mile' connection," he said. "Aswe’re connecting these small businesses, we’re adding last-mile connections (to homes)," essentially linking the "Route 6" of broadband networks into residents' driveways.
5G not coming to the Cape anytime soon
"Cape Cod is not on the top of any list forrolling out 5G;it is primarily an urban tool," Johnston said. "You need multiple radios per mile to provide that dense, super-fast coverage."
The term 5G simply means “fifth generation of cellular technology.” It refers to a bundle of standards that increases the speed at which data flows, reduces slow-moving data, and makes wireless services more flexible.
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But many customers on Cape Cod would be happy with a reliable and affordable broadband connection.
FalmouthNet is looking to connect all of Falmouth, Johnson said,"becausethey have some of the worst service on Cape Cod."
As a Sandwich resident, he said his Comcast bill is$385 a month, which he described as "obscene."
"It'sridiculous that people have to pay that kind of money to have lackluster service," Johnston said. "We have the opportunity to change the paradigm."
Government money sought for Cape Cod last-mile broadband connections
Massachusettsallocated $50 millionto improving broadband access in December,Johnston said, whereas New YorkandNorth Carolina each have allocated $1 billion.
"We (OpenCape) spend a lot of our energy on the Cape ... becausethe need here is the biggest," he said. "On the Cape, you don’t have choice. You don’t have competition (between broadband providers). We see it as our mission to connect as many people as we possibly can."
American Rescue Plan Act(ARPA) money offers an opportunity to change thatparadigm, said Johnston, who has reached out to the Cape Legislative delegation for support. Commissioners and residents who took the county's survey about how ARPA funding should be usedidentified broadband as an infrastructure priority.
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Were OpenCape to realize another $5 million in funding, Johnston said, the Outer Cape would be the first place he would focus on.
"The fiber on the Outer Cape gets a little more abuse; it gets 'sand-blasted' daily," he said. "Co-ax cable (used by Comcast) was primarily designed to deliver Internet service over a video pipe. It’s nowhere close to as efficient (as fiber).
"Great connectivity is the one stop-gap that we could actually control; it would be the biggest boost that we could do," Johnston said."There are a couple towns on the Cape that would benefit dramatically by doing what we did in Falmouth. We’re talking to them right now."
Does Barnstable County have arole inexpandinglast-mile broadband?
Barnstable County was OpenCape'sfirst seed investor, according to tech columnist Theresa Martin, an OpenCape co-founder and technology columnist for the Times.
"I think the county deserves a thumbs-up," Martin said. "It’s really a question of infrastructure. The technology is a secondary 'how.'Don’t start off going down the rabbit hole of technical details. Over time, we know that will change. Infrastructure needs to be in place to support this. There's got to be investment to make that happen."
When OpenCape was formed the idea was that publicly funded middle-mile broadband infrastructure would be supplemented by private investment for last-mile development. That private investment never materialized in rural areas such as theCape becausefor-profit companies had a higher return on investment in more densely populated areas.
"The Cape is not alone in the last-mile conundrum," Martin said. "The Cape is relatively low-density. Investment is not very attractive. OpenCape is targeted to 'the middle mile.' That is the investment barrier."
Johnston said he looks forward Election Day, Nov. 8 with the hope that a new governor will prioritize investmentto improve the Cape's— and other rural areas'—last-mile connections.
"We need a plan for broadbandfor the commonwealth," he said. "Massachusetts is one of 16 states in the country that doesn’t have a central broadband office."
If given the money, Johnston said, many towns would be willing to invest in Main Street initiatives.
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"That's kind of where we’ve been stuck for the past 10 years, and it’s very frustrating," said Sandwich Assembly Delegate James Killion. "We’re using a very small percentageof the region's fiber capability, andwe’re not leveraging that value."
"In some states, AT&Thas lobbied hard to halt community broadband. In Massachusetts, we have to give our state some credit for not succumbing to that," he said.
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Public-private partnerships work, saidTim Kelly, Comcast's vice president of Government and Regulatory Affairs for the Boston region, which serves315 communities in New England. Comcastextended free access to all of its Xfinity hotspots during the pandemic.
"Feeder fiber goes into every neighborhood on the Cape," Kelly said. "Theservice here should be the same as in Boston.The Cape has everything everyone else has ... but there are impediments and hurdles," such aspermitting alongthe Cape Cod National Seashore.
Over the next fouryears, Kelly said, Comcast will beadding more network capacity. "We’re not digging up streets. We have the infrastructure already in place.
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"The pandemic has shown the importance of broadband more than ever," he said. TheMassachusetts Broadband Instituteat the Mass Tech Collaborative,the state government body overseeing broadband connectivity, is looking fora $1.5 millioninvestment to bring the Cape up to speed.
Comcast’s Internet Essentials program offers broadband connections via itsAffordable Connectivity Program. Similarly, Kelly said,a Comcast partnership in Provincetown currently offers subsidy programs for income-constrained families.
Wellfleet has the most homes not connected, said Wellfleet Delegate Lilli Ann Green. "In the summertime, routinely, my service diminishes."
"Give me addresses," Kelly said. "We’ll get it fixed. We’ll get it done."
