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Massachusetts Town Builds Itself 2 Gigabit Fiber for $75 a Month

Way back in 2005 we profiled the Massachusetts towns of Shutesbury and Leverett, two shining examples of the kinds of U.S. towns that have fallen into broadband connectivity black holes. Large regional providers like Verizon didn't want to upgrade the markets (Boston still hasn't been upgraded to FiOS), and could barely be bothered to keep aging copper in the region fully functional.

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A decade later and Leverett last October formally launched LeverettNet, a new network that now delivers up to two gigabit speeds with no usage caps to the town's previously-underserved masses.

The company started by offering locals symmetrical gigabit connections for $65 a month. Starting January 1, locals will now be able two get 2 gigabit connections for $25 a month plus a $50 monthly LLMP operating fee ($75 a month).

Contrast that to Comcast's price tag for two gigabit service: $300 a month with $1000 worth of installation and activation fees. You'll quickly realize why ISPs have turned to protectionist stat laws to ban towns and cities from wiring themselves.

The town also announced this week that it's lowering prices for all of its services (the exact opposite of what usually happens this time of year). The cost of gigabit and phone service is dropping from $44.95 to $39.95 per month, while the price of telephone service is dropping from $29.95 to $24.95 per month (see all prices here). The outfit also announced this week that the project would have a notably lower impact on property taxes than expected.

LeverettNet is the first ‘Last Mile’ project fed by the MassBroadband 123 fiber-optic ‘middle mile’ network, a project backed by state and federal governments which brought fiber-optic connectivity into the town of 1,876 residents early in 2014.

Voters approved borrowing $3.6 million in 2012 -- or roughly $1,900 per resident -- to deliver fiber to 800 premises and connect to the MassBroadband 123 network. Leverett contracts a private local ISP by the name of Crocker Communications to provide broadband service.

LeverettNet notes that over 650 of 800 homes in town have signed up for service, an 80%-plus connection rate showing just how hungry the town was for the kind of service ISPs like Verizon simply refused to provide. Of course the giant incumbent ISPs will complain, but like most municipal broadband efforts this one would have never been born if the private sector had been motivated to give locals better, faster, cheaper service.

Update: We've since confirmed that LeverttNet isn't technically offering 2 Gbps, they're just dropping the price of their 1 Gbps service and associated bundles, and increasing the speed of their POP to 2 Gbps. The last mile connections for these users will remain 1 Gbps. We apologize for any confusion.

Most recommended from 88 comments


Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL

14 recommendations

Zoder

Member

Comcast 2 gig

So it breaks even with comcasts 2 gig service in 5 months. 1000 install plus 300 a month. This just shows how much Comcast is overcharging.

I see it also includes phone service in that price. So the break even is even earlier.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

8 recommendations

KrK

Premium Member

Reading into it further....

They are going to pay off the monies borrowed to build it well ahead of schedule as well. I commend them for doing what nobody else would, and doing it right.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

8 recommendations

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Springfield

Springfield might as well be marked as cable only as well as all the other towns serviced by Verizon DSL.

I tried getting Verizon DSL a few years ago when I was having problems with Comcast and they're not taking new customers saying no facilities available.

Verizon seriously wants out of the copper market. They could easily replace copper with fiber and turn a money loser into a money maker.

The problem is some customers refuse to give up copper, particularly elderly. VZ should be allowed to shut down copper on the condition that they offer equal or better wireline service.
HeadSpinning
MNSi Internet
join:2005-05-29
Windsor, ON

6 recommendations

HeadSpinning

Member

This is not really 2 gig...


* Each subscriber has a full 1Gbps Active Ethernet connection with shared access to the 2Gbps “middle mile” bandwidth established by the Network Operator to the Service Provider.
Martijn0
join:2015-06-26
Parrottsville, TN

1 edit

5 recommendations

Martijn0

Member

Unbelievable

And here a large telecom company like AT&T will receive over $2000 per home over the next 6 years for unserved areas through the Connect America Funding.

Result = (limited) Fixed wireless.

Private sector is the way to go....

DocDrew
How can I help?
Premium Member
join:2009-01-28
SoCal
Ubee E31U2V1
Technicolor TC4400
Linksys EA6900

4 edits

5 recommendations

DocDrew

Premium Member

How do customers get the 2 Gig that is being marketed?

Click for full size
said by LeverettNet :

*Internet service with 1Gps (one gigabit per second) symmetrical (upload and download) access to the 2Gbps (two gigabits per second) 'middle-mile,' with no data cap.

Talk about misleading press parroted by Karl... it's written like customers can get the 2 Gig connection for $45: »motherboard.vice.com/rea ··· -a-month In reality, it's a 1 Gbps connection for about $93 a month (ISP cost + network provider cost + property tax).

How do they think 2 Gbps is possible? It doesn't not supported by the equipment deployed to the "last mile" network customers are actually attached to.
»lmlp.leverettnet.net/about has a short statement on it:
said by Leverettnet.net/about :

Beginning in December 2015, LeverettNet will connect from the Point of Presence to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) at 2-Gigabits-per-second (2Gbps).

So customer ONT to PoP is 1 Gbps. PoP to ISP is 2 Gbps, shared by ALL 800 GigE Leverett network subscribers. Is that for network backhaul or just ISP (DHCP, email, phone, etc) services? The 1st is horrible, the 2nd is normal subscriber maintenance.

Leverettnet should really create a website outlining everything they've done to make this possible. Costs, equipment, companies involved. It'd be a good example to other cities to do similar projects. This is a start:
»leverett.ma.us/content/b ··· n-packet
»leverett.ma.us/files/MLP ··· gram.pdf
»www.calix.com/systems/e- ··· -20.html
»www.calix.com/systems/p- ··· ies.html
mikesco8
join:2006-02-17
Southwick, MA

1 edit

2 recommendations

mikesco8

Member

Please help me understand this statement?

It says "Each subscriber has a full 1Gbps Active Ethernet connection with shared access to the 2Gbps “middle mile” bandwidth established by the Network Operator to the Service Provider." Does that mean that they are only getting 1gbps and have to share a 2gbps pipe with their neighbors or are they getting guaranteed 1gbps and up to 2gbps shared? It is still a great deal regardless, but I am not clear on what this is saying? Depending on how you read it they are not really getting 2gbps.