[Lakegeezer]

How many miles would be involved for Moultonborough? - about 204 system miles. Class 1=13, Class 2=19, Class 5=65, Private =107.

Would that be for all poles (presuming all electric company and phone company poles) without fiber? - It would be up to NHEC. It is not regulated. Ideally, everywhere they have poles, but it might take a while for a build-out.

Would poles with present fiber, phone and cable companies, be discriminated and not included? Aren't they part of wired market competition? Unclear, but NHEC would probably overbuild where there is fiber. Firstlight, Verizon and maybe Charter already have lots of fiber, but only Firstlight sells bandwidth wholesale. So the question remains, will NHEC sell bandwidth wholesale, competing with Firstlight, or compete only as an ISP. Nothing wrong with Firstlight, but their costs are higher because they don't own poles. Firstlight targets business customers, not residential

How much is this anticipated to cost? To whom? NHEC says the sale of bandwidth would pay for the fiber plant and maybe even lower cost of electricity to their customers. We'll see. For those that own the poles, it is a lot cheaper to string fiber.

Could this become another "Claremont Decision"? Unclear what you mean, but for the first three possibilities that I came up with, the answer is same, probably not. Internet is unregulated. Taxes would not be involved. It is likely that NHEC will take funds from the Fed, State and Local level to help them decide priorities and timelines.

How about companies like Hub66, that already exist? Hub66 buys wholesale bandwidth from Firstlight (so does Verizon wireless and AT&T cellular) and could potentially also buy it from NHEC. Hub66 is also doing some "overlashing" on top of Firstlight's fiber runs and offering fiber to the home. Hub66 is growing in Moultonboro and is a good alternative some of those that can't get cable.