Sept. 28, 2022 | Jonathan Gerhardson jgerhardson@thereminder.com

WEST SPRINGFIELD — “I’m going to move to approve the text of the ballot question proposed by the town attorney relative to establishing a municipal light plant pursuant to Mass. General Laws, Chapter 164, Section 35. And [to] place the question to the voters at a special municipal election to be held Nov. 8, 2022,” said Town Council President Edward Sullivan at the council’s Sept. 20 meeting.

The council voted unanimously in favor, so West Springfield voters will have the chance in November to create a municipally owned fiber optic internet service provider. That the ballot question makes reference to a “municipal light plant” is an artifact of how the Massachusetts law is written: the same law dealing with power plants also covers telecommunications services.

West Springfield would be operating a literal “light plant,” however, as fiber optic networks transmit data in the form of light pulses through clear glass fiber cabling. The fiber lines would be owned by West Springfield but the service would be operated under contract with Whip City Fiber, part of Westfield Gas & Electric, itself a municipal utility company.

According to a prospective contract between West Springfield and Whip City Fiber, the power company would perform the “infrastructure development, network maintenance and support services” necessary to build out the fiber network to every address in West Springfield, starting with a pilot program of four neighborhoods.

Whip City Fiber is projecting that the cost of services in West Springfield would be in line with rates in other towns it serves. Residents will be able to pay $74.95 per month for service with speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, both uploading and downloading. With a gigabit connection, 1 gigabyte of data can be transferred in about 8 seconds.

Residents will also have the option to purchase voice over internet protocol (VOIP) telephone service for about $15 per month.

The town would pay Whip City Fiber a wholesale rate of $28 per subscriber. The rest of the rate would be collected in a West Springfield enterprise fund that would pay for building out the network, a project Sullivan says will cost millions of dollars, but ultimately pay for itself, and become a self-sustaining entity.

Community broadband programs have been gaining in popularity in Massachusetts in recent years, often offering lower prices and higher speeds than privately owned ISPs such as Comcast. Locally, Westfield, Chicopee and several hilltowns in the Berkshires have either completed or are in the process of building out a municipally owned fiber optic ISP.

For more information visit whipcityfiber.com/west-side.