IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Salem, Mass. Entertains City-Wide Network

With only one high-speed Internet option in the city, a New Jersey-based provider is looking to implement a city-wide network as early as next year.

(TNS) — SALEM, Mass. — A New Jersey-based fiber-optic provider is working with city officials to start building a city-wide network in Salem as early as next year.

SiFi Networks, headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, responded to a request for proposals issued this past summer for the construction of a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network. If the project moves forward, it would install a fiber-based network under most Salem streets.

For the most part, there is only one high-speed internet option in Salem: Comcast. SiFi's project, however, would not create but rather invite new options. That's based on a fiber-optic network that uses pulses of light to send information at higher volumes and faster speeds than the current high-speed cable lines that run pole to pole. That network, once built, would allow fiber-based service providers to start selling products to connected residents.

The end-game is to give every home access to fiber-based Internet, phone and TV options, leading to more competition and lower prices overall — but a lot has to happen first.

"It's going to involve opening every street in the city to put fiber in," said assistant city solicitor Vickie Caldwell. "The idea was that this is a way to provide some (internet service provider) competition within the city."

Under SiFi Networks' proposal, the fiber would be installed through a process called micro-trenching, in which small slots are cut into the road so as not to disturb infrastructure.

SiFi plans to build the network for free, Caldwell said, and effectively charge service providers to use it once the network is online. "That's how they'd make their money."

City officials are working on drafting the necessary documents.

"We have to enter into an agreement with them to start the process," Caldwell said. "We're working on it, and we're going to be submitting something to the (City Council) in January."

Ward 5 Councilor Josh Turiel, who owns an information technology business, has been helping guide the effort from the beginning. He said SiFi reflected the only full response to the city's bid request, while "a couple other companies inquired about it, asking if this is something the city is going to help pay for."

"We had a meeting to sit down and review the proposal," Turiel said. "They (SiFi) met most of it — were a little short in some areas and gave us more than we asked for in other areas. We told them they had met the criteria, and we'd work to negotiate."

Given the scope of the work, those negotiations will cover a number of areas, according to Turiel.

"There will be road-opening permits, and grants of location for equipment that would need to be placed above-ground," he said. "If all goes well and the permits and plans are in place, they could start working in the spring."

While Comcast didn't propose its own fiber network designed for home subscribers, it did respond to the city's request for proposals to illustrate its own existing Salem infrastructure, which "currently provides a wide array of services to residents and businesses in Salem."

"Since 1996, Comcast has invested nearly $6 billion in private, at-risk capital in Massachusetts, building, maintaining and operating one of the most extensive fiber-based networks in the country," Comcast wrote in a letter addressed to Mayor Kim Driscoll. "Our network passes 99 percent of the homes and 94 percent of the businesses in our service areas in Massachusetts, delivering some of the fastest, most reliable Internet services. Locally, our network passes nearly 100 percent of the residences and businesses in Salem."

Matthew Killen, the city's chief information officer, said Salem residents will likely see higher Internet speeds and savings once the work is complete.

"Like many communities, Salem is served by a single high-speed Internet provider, and that's Comcast," he said. "Comcast does, I think, a fine job, but they can only offer so much — and I'm always of the opinion that competition is a good thing."

That comes from Killen's past work in North Andover, which he said had Comcast and Verizon competing for customers.

"We were one of the last Fios buildouts in Massachusetts, and we saw exactly what we're talking about," he said. "As soon as the other provider came into the municipality, customers began to get higher speeds at lower costs with better service. That's exactly what I believe will happen in Salem."

©2017 The Salem News (Beverly, Mass.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.