[Lakegeezer]

Hopefully this happens. In Moultonboro, more than half the town has cable, but there are pockets of homes that are stuck with the phone company's DSL internet. DSL is always below the standard definition of "served", which is 25x3 Mbps. The town has communication infrastructure funds to spend, but it is hard to find good solutions. There are fixed wireless carriers using cell towers to radio to homes and some companies are offering fiber to the home, but not in a coordinated way. Running new fiber along poles is quoted at $33,000 per mile, which would deplete the town's funds quickly.

One unserved neighborhood is paying the phone company to bring fiber to their homes. It will cost each customer $200/month for 100 Mbps speed. A great example of the saying, "You can buy better, but you can't pay more". Having the power company string fiber along with their electric wires would at least get the infrastructure in place to bring everyone up to speed. Today, cable speeds are OK, but upload speeds are limited. If the phone company and cable company won't invest in fiber to the home, the power company is a logical choice.

It isn't clear to me if the NHEC will own just the fiber backbone and sell bandwidth wholesale to internet service providers, or if they will keep it private and run their own ISP, like the phone company does. I hope it is the former, since competition in internet services is still good for the consumer.

I voted yes on the NHEC proposal and encourage others to do that too. Give them a chance. Get the fiber installed. It will raise the economic potential of the area. Virtual learning and working is now a proven concept that won't disappear after social distancing is history.