August Update

More than 300 Greenfield residents have been connected to fiber - that is almost half of the unique addresses in town in just 6 months since the network became available! Remember - if you are having troubles please reach out to greenfieldbroadband@gmail.com via email or at the Greenfield Broadband Facebook Group!

March Update

Construction is complete and the rollout is well under way. So far almost 200 Greenfield residents have been connected to fiber! With the spring thaw well under way it won't be long until installs that had to be postponed due to frozen ground can be scheduled.

Yes, there have been a few glitches but we have been able to resolve most problems quite rapidly - if you have any problems scheduling an installation or you are told that the service is not available for some reason please reach out to greenfieldbroadband@gmail.com and we will work to get it resolved.

A word to the wise: if you have a home office or small business with a "business phone" line, the process is not as simple as it is for pure residential service. At this time Fidium is only handling residential service. Business services are still through CCI. Fidium is not planning to support business service until the end of the year or, possibly, sometime in 2023.

DON'T PANIC! If you squint really hard at the map and your road or your house does not seem to be covered that is because this map only shows the major "trunk" lines with 72 or more fiber strands in them. Smaller lines will branch off of these larger lines to pick up the remaining houses.

While we all wait for this phase of construction to complete it is also a great idea to visit Greenfield Fiber and register so that CCI knows that you are interested!

October Update

Things are starting to happen! The selectboard will be meeting Thursday, October 7th and the CCI contract is on the agenda for 7pm. We are hoping that all of the issues are resolved to the board's satisfaction and that approval will be forthcoming. I will update this page once we know more!

On top of that Consolidated has rolled out a pre-registration site for Greenfield: Upgrade To Fiber so head on over and get signed up!

June Update

Of course everyone wants to have the broadband project completed yesterday. If we could do that we would! Meanwhile, here is what has been happening and some idea of the next steps:

• May 2nd: Voters gave the town permission to finance the broadband project and negotiate contracts.

• May 18th: The NH Bond Bank approved our loan application.

Senate Bill 85 - Matching Funds?

As mentioned below, the NH legislature has been working to create a Broadband Matching Grant Initiative. This would, potentially, enable Greenfield to reduce the amount of money that the Town needs to raise for the project.

In order to position the town to be able to benefit from this possibility we need to borrow no more than 50% of the approved funds in the summer round of bond funding. Coincidentally the terms of the CCI contract specify a 50% payment to start the project - so borrowing half the money has no impact on the project start date!

This enables the town to be eligible to apply for matching funds once the state figures out what the process for that will be. Realistically we need that process to be defined fairly quickly as there are additional payments due to CCI in Q1 of 2022.

By taking this path we have roughly a 6 month window to try to qualify. If the state doesn't pass the legislation, or the rules are not friendly to us, or if there is no money, we just continue with the second half of the bond process in January. From the project's point of view it is "business as usual". If we are able to get matching funds then we simply reduce or eliminate the second "tranche" of borrowing.

The Bond

As mentioned above, the town's application was approved on May 18th. The next step is for the NH Bond Bank to auction a "pool" of bonds from all around NH. This will occur on July 14th. Once the auction is complete we will know what the interest rate is for the first 50% of our funds and we can plug a repayment schedule into the CCI contract.

The proceeds from the bond auction will be sent to the town on August 11th. Once we have that money we can then pay CCI to get started on construction.

The CCI Contract

While all of this is going on we have been working on the CCI contract. There are quite a few things, like the payment schedule, that are dependent on external events and that cannot be finalized quite yet. We expect to have a "red-lined" draft to CCI next week (the week of June 21st) and hope to have all of the major points agreed on early July. Some finalized numbers will be added as they become available.

Construction

Once we have funds from the bond bank and a finalized contract in place we can get the project kicked off! That should happen in mid-August. There is probably a bunch of paperwork and a lot of planning meetings before we see trucks out on the roads hanging fiber but work should be starting in late summer! If all goes well "the network" will be ready by January and CCI will then start scheduling installation of "drops" for customers (running fiber from the road to the house). The actual "go live" is probably several months after that.

We will, of course, continue to communicate what is going on and you can always reach out to us by email at greenfieldbroadband@gmail.com or on our Greenfield Broadband Facebook Group.

Next Steps (May 2nd, 2021)

Now that the bond has been approved we are moving on to the next steps in implementing the project. We will, of course, continue to communicate what is going on and you can always reach out to us by email at greenfieldbroadband.@gmail.com or on our Greenfield Broadband Facebook Group.

So what is next?

NH Senate Bill 85, "Establishing A Broadband Matching Grant Initiative" , is working its way through the NH legislature. There is a House Finance Committee public hearing on Monday May 10th at 10:50am to discuss the bill.

Members of the public may attend using the following links:

1. To join the webinar: https://www.zoom.us/j/92166004660

2. Or Telephone: 1-929-205-6099

3. Webinar ID: 921 6600 4660

email to LBA@fiscal.nh.us will be monitored throughout the meeting by someone who can assist with and alert the committee to any technical issues.

It is not clear if it will be discussed in the House Hearing, but Senators Bradley and Kahn have proposed an amendment that will help to ensure that towns, like Greenfield, that have projects approved for this year, can take advantage of this money. (The original bill gives the impression that money would only be available to towns that go through the process for next year. Thus delaying implementation of any project using this money until at least 2023.)

You can contact Greenfield's NH State Senator and House Representatives and let them know that it is important that these funds be made available to towns that have approved projects this year rather than only supporting future projects:

Denise.Ricciardi@leg.state.nh.us

Dan.Pickering@leg.state.nh.us

Stephanie.Hyland@leg.state.nh.us

creighton4nh@gmail.com

HouseFinanceCommittee@leg.state.nh.us

Contract Negotiations

The next thing on the agenda is to start digging deeper into contract negotiations with CCI. We need to clarify some of the terms of the contract and ensure that the interests of the town and its citizens are covered. This will probably proceed over the next few months. The contract does not need to be signed right away and it may be beneficial to wait as long as possible in order to qualify for the matching funds mentioned above.

The Bond

The NH Bond Bank usually holds an auction in June or July for the bonds approved by NH towns. That auction may be later than usual this year in order to accommodate uncertainty about matching funds. Once that auction takes place and funds are made available we will need to finalize the contract with CCI to get construction moving forward.

Construction

So when do we start to see CCI trucks wiring up the town? It depends. The variability of the financing timeline may impact the start of construction. Some parts of project planning, ordering cables and equipment can get started right away. We won't see anyone up on the poles installing our network before the contract is signed. That will probably be late summer or early fall. It may be later. This year 20+ towns have approved projects like ours and we are one of the last towns to vote on it. If all goes well, construction should be underway sometime in the second half of 2021 and CCI should be scheduling appointments for hook-ups in the spring. We will, of course, keep everyone up to date as we get more information!

The Bond has passed!

Town Meeting is over and the broadband bond was approved by voters 152-1. Thank-you Greenfield!

Important Notice

The bond will be voted on at Town Meeting on May 1st starting at 9am outside at Oak Park.

You must be present to cast your vote, there are no absentee ballots for Town Meeting.

The bond is article #2 and voting will be open for one hour. A 3/5 majority is needed to pass.

The last day for residents to register to vote at Town Meeting is Saturday, April 24th.

Better Internet in Greenfield

A Message From the Greenfield Selectboard

Warrant Article #2

Town Meeting

May 1^st 9am, at Oak Park

As you probably already know, Greenfield’s internet service leaves much to be desired. To solve this problem, the Greenfield Volunteer Broadband Committee working together with the Greenfield Selectboard has been pursuing “The Chesterfield Model” to bring broadband to town via a public-private partnership.

The proposed network will be a fiber optic network bringing service to the whole town. It doesn’t matter if you are downtown or in the woods – service will be available everywhere that can currently get wired telephone service. Installation is free for addresses with a cable run or clear conduit of 150 feet or less. (There may be a charge for unusually long cable runs or unusable conduit.)

The proposed pricing plans offer a choice of 50Mbps for $45/month, 250Mbps for $70/month, and 1Gbps for $80/month. Download and upload speeds are the same. There are no data caps, and these plans include the modem and installation.

The total project will cost $1,795,785. Of that $439,488 is provided by Federal RDOF funds and CCI is contributing $369,285 of their own investment. The remaining $987,012 is covered by the bond that is the subject of Warrant Article #2.

There may be additional Federal funds available from the American Rescue Plan Act made available but we have no specific information about that at this time. Should those monies be available to the town they may, potentially, reduce the bond amount. The rules are expected to be finalized soon. We believe that the most favorable position for the town to be in is to have an approved project ready to be executed. Should additional money be made available to the town we can reduce the bond amount accordingly at any time prior to the bond auction (currently expected in July).

This requires approval of the Warrant Article at Town Meeting, which must pass by a three-fifths (3/5) vote.

The bond payments will be guaranteed by CCI and are funded by a monthly user fees that are expected to be about $10/month per subscriber. Only subscribers will pay that fee and there is no minimum number of subscribers needed. CCI makes the payment regardless of the number of subscribers. If there are more subscribers than are needed the monthly fee may be reduced. In this way no tax dollars need to be raised to fund the project.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who owns the fiber network?

The public-private partnership agreement stipulates that the town owns the fiber network (this is a requirement of the bonding process) but will outsource the operation and maintenance of that network to CCI.

Does this bond impact potentially bonding for the Meeting House?

No. Broadband bonds specifically do not count toward the town’s debt limit per RSA 33:6-f.

Can I keep my phone service?

Yes. You may, however, wish to review the potential for savings by converting to “Voice over IP” (also known as VOIP). This is an “internet phone” that works over your network connection rather than the old copper lines. There are many possible providers of this service and it is often less expensive than a traditional phone line. You will, however, need a battery backup for emergency service as there is no power delivery over fiber optic lines.

How much bandwidth do I really need?

Many people will find that 50Mbps is plenty of bandwidth for web browsing, email, streaming, telehealth, online schooling, video conferencing, and games. Large households with many users and devices as well as work from home users with demanding applications may need the higher bandwidth options.

When will the new network be available?

If approved, construction is expected to start in late summer and subscribers should start to be connected in the spring of 2022.

Where can I find more information?

Visit www.greenfieldbroadband.com where we have many resources available that help to explain the project and answer questions. You can also visit the town website at www.greenfield-nh.gov or email: greenfieldbroadband@gmail.com or join one of our informal Tuesday night info sessions (see below).

Info Sessions

We have returned to our usual general purpose info sessions on Tuesday evenings at 7:30pm.

Next up: April 27th

Join in to hear the latest news (if there is any), ask questions, or just to chat about the weather!

Web Meeting: https://zoom.us/join Meeting ID: 851 442 9808 Web Passcode: 653cuG

Call in number: 1 929 205 6099 Meeting ID: 851 442 9808 Phone Passcode: 170024

One-tap Mobile: +19292056099,,8514429808,#,,170024#

Greenfield Broadband Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/209505687217465

New Pricing

Consolidated has updated, simplified, and reduced their proposed pricing for the fiber Network:

This new pricing removes several items that were previously charged separately. The net result is that the "entry level" 50Mbps fiber plan is the same price as the current entry level DSL pricing:

Update: Now that the FCC web site has settled down, CCI appears to be the sole winner in Greenfield. All of the Greenfield coverage is also "Gigabit, low latency" (green coloring). SpaceX was the winner of the red areas on the map and those all appear to be just outside Greenfield's border. The next step in the RDOF process is for the winners to submit a "Long Form Application" and they have until January 29th to do so.

While we do not yet know what specific impact this will have on our project, it is good news as winners are a) interested and b) incentivized to actually bring broadband to these areas. Unlike most previous FCC broadband funding the winners do not get paid unless they actually provide service to the indicated areas.

Update 2: We have confirmed that CCI won $439,488 and that this amount will be deducted from the bond amount. That means that the bond amount is now expected be $987,012 and that the recovery fee should fall from $14/month to $10/month.

We have selected a Proposal

The Select Board asked for a recommendation and the committee recommended Proposal #1. Our feeling is that this proposal provides the fastest timeline to implementation and has the lowest barriers to adoption. The Select Board agreed and we are moving ahead negotiating a contract.

The first two of the proposed solutions also meet our criteria of zero tax impact! The third proposal is unclear about that aspect and we have requested clarification. We are very interested in hearing from people about what they like and do not like about these proposals. Please join our next info call to share your feedback and ask questions or send an email to:

greenfieldbroadband@gmail.com

Update: We have confirmed that CCI won $439,488 in RDOF funding and that this amount will be deducted from the bond amount. That means that the bond amount is now expected be under $990,000 and that the user fee should fall from $14/month to $10/month.

Update #2: CCI has revised their proposed pricing, substantially reducing the monthly rates, eliminating some of the fees and increasing bandwidth for the middle tier from 100Mbps to 250Mbps.