AGAWAM – The town of Agawam and its Municipal Fiber Task Force recently announced Otelco as the first third party carrier of broadband internet service to come into town as part of its exploration into implementing a town-owned and managed internet service, or partnering with a third party to establish a new network.

Otelco plans to construct a fiber network system throughout Agawam to offer residents another alternative for internet service aside from Comcast. At this time, they already have a presence in Granby as a provider.

There is currently no agreement or contract with Otelco, and no further discussion has occurred aside from prorating.

Les Tingley, the chair of the task force, explained the prospect of the town operating on its own fiber network was cost prohibitive. The estimate ranged from $10 to 15 million alone. Because of that, the town is considering third-party vendors.

“We are just looking to have more options for our residents right now besides Comcast. Our task force has been set up by our office to investigate prices but Otelco isn’t a company we recruited; they came in on their own because they had the right to as long as they got a permit from the state. They set up an agreement with Eversource, which owns our polls. We are still looking at other options as to which way we can go,” said Mayor William Sapelli.

Comcast announced data caps on its customers who exceed their monthly data limit, which caused significant financial concern in many towns where Comcast is the predominant internet service. They have since delayed instituting the data cap until 2022. Residents with Comcast who exceed 1.2 terabytes of data within a month will be charged more.

When the task force spoke with Otelco, they mentioned that they would be able to do all the polls, which is 80 percent of the town. There are some underground polls as well, which Sapelli said would be a part of phase two because it would be more of a challenge and a longer process.

Sapelli also mentioned that if chosen, Otelco would be able to get started and get people online for this transition approximately one year from now. The upside of Otelco is its fiber optic cable versus what the town has currently, which is coaxial cable.

“Fiber optic cable is much faster, efficient, and effective than coaxial so that’s why people are excited,” Sapelli said.

The task force is also still working with Whip City Fiber internet service out of Westfield, which has not been ruled out.

“We are happy they are coming in and that they are an option aside from what we have here as Comcast. We’ll see where we go from here.”