ROYALSTON — At the meeting of the Selectboard on Tuesday, March 1, Rick Martin presented Royalston’s Selectboard with a draft agreement between the town and Charter Communications for Charter to provide cable television and high-speed internet services to the town. Martin chaired the three-member committee that negotiated with the telecommunications company. In addition to Martin, the committee included Chris Haynes and Peter Gagliardi.
“Initially, we got a draft copy,” said Martin. “The committee went through it and were a little confused because there’s nothing in there about broadband — period, no word. And, come to find out, you don’t need a license in town for broadband; nothing — it doesn’t exist. The only thing you need a license for, legally, is cable television.
“So, the broadband can be transmitted through the cable wires. So, that’s how they can do that.”
Martin did explain there was some back-and-forth between the committee and Charter representatives.
“We went through the initial license proposal,” he said, “and we went back with some changes, or requests for changes — three main ones. And they were all basically turned down.
“One of them concerned the municipal light plant, which, again, is cable, so they said it doesn’t belong in there. We tried to extend the free standard drop. The standard drop is 150 feet from the line. Knowing that Royalston has many houses that are way further back, we tried to extend that, and they basically said, ‘We can’t do that. We’re going to go with our standard.’
“Their reasoning is if they do that, then they’ve created a precedent. That means any new contract coming up could reference this (agreement), and old ones being renewed could also reference this. So, they said, “No. Everybody’s going to get the same and that’s it.’”
Martin said the third item the committee wanted included in the agreement was the extension of service to homes along the Athol portion of Gulf Road. That idea, however, was nixed not by Charter but by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute.
“MBI said, ‘Listen,’” Martin explained, “‘we can do Royalston. We can do Athol. We can’t do a hybrid because Athol has their own license. And in order to do any work in Athol, they’d have to have the license with Athol changed. Just do Royalston; don’t hold it up.’
“So, basically, we went back to them and said ‘OK, we’ll accept your initial proposal.’ So, that’s what we have here.”
In April of last year, the state Department of Housing and Community Development informed Royalston officials that Charter had won a federal bid to wire communities throughout the country that are currently without broadband service. It was initially thought the town would have to fund nearly $800,000 of the estimated $1.9 million cost of the project, but the town was later told Charter could do the job at no cost to Royalston.
Should any costs to the town arise, Selectboard Chair Deb D’Amico said they would be covered by a $1.125 million grant awarded to Royalston by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute to construct a wireless high-speed internet system. The decision to go with Charter came just as 10 years of effort by the now-disbanded Broadband Committee to get the wireless system up and running was about to come to fruition.
“Once we get our copy (of the agreement) back,” said Martin, “I can start bugging both Charter and MBI about the next steps. I think the next steps are with the utilities, getting it set up and scoped out.”
Charter will need to work with National Grid and Verizon to retrofit utility poles to carry the fiber-optic cables that will feed TV and internet to homes and businesses in Royalston.
“They’re probably going to want to get maps of where all the utilities are in Royalston,” said Martin, “because they’ve got a listing of 513 residences, so they have to make sure all the poles cover those sites. If not, they’ll have to work out something with the utilities to get poles up in those areas.”
Once the agreement has been signed by both parties — Charter and the town — Charter will have two years to complete its work. It’s unknown at present what the monthly cost will be for those who sign up for the service.
In part, as preparation for a townwide wireless broadband system, a pilot project was established for about three dozen customers in South Royalston. In response to a question, Selectboard member Roland Hamel said those people would have the option of staying with their current service or switching to Charter. It’s likely, he said, that some customers would continue as customers of the wireless system until maintenance of that system is no longer cost-effective.
The Selectboard vote to sign the agreement with Charter was unanimous.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com