The Town of Hanover is working to acquire a high speed telecommunication network, but progress has been slowed due to funding difficulties. Hanover is one of eight New Hampshire communities that came together in October 2005 to build a publicly owned fiber optic cable network that would allow households to install wireless networks and have higher speed internet access.
Private internet companies have been unwilling to invest the money necessary to lay fiber optic lines in rural New Hampshire communities, and therefore individual towns must take an active role to secure a high-speed connection, Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said. The eight towns hope to lay the fiber optic line and lease the bandwidth to private internet providers.
The eight-town collective, known as the West Central New Hampshire Regional Homeland Security Communications Consortium -- which is composed of Hanover, Orford, Lyme, Enfield, Springfield, New London, Sunapee and Newbury -- estimates that the project will cost approximately $20 million, according to Griffin, vice chair of WCNH.
"We are much further along with the concept [since 2005] but no further with the financial plan," Griffin said. "A major impediment is a lack of funding from the state and national government."
WCNH hopes to secure a capital lease, which would allow the consortium to lay a leased fiber optics line, according to Griffin. If the system is not financially sound, the communities will not be held responsible, she said. Securing a loan, however, will be difficult, she added.
"Given the current state of the economy, [capital lease] firms can't finance like they could even a year ago," she said
WCNH hopes to form an intermunicipal cooperation under state law that would allow the towns to operate as one legal entity, to build the fiber optic network and operate it in the short term before turning management of the system over to a non-profit organization that is better equipped to maintain it. One of the main problems with this plan is that each town has different needs and different wireless accessibility.
The fiber optics system will likely not be set up for another two years, Griffin said. The group is currently focused on gathering additional data and beginning dialogue with local elected officials. If officials jump on board, the capital leasing plan and network should enter town meeting discussions by spring 2009, according to Griffin. The rest of the year would then be spent finalizing business plans and securing financing, she said.
"We are far away from fiber hanging on polls or in the ground," Griffin said.
In July, representatives of the WCNH plan to travel to communities in Virginia and North Carolina that operate similar fiber optic systems.
"We are anxious to find out how they have finalized their funding, their business plans and the customer take rates," Griffin said.
Customer take rates are measured by the percentage of eligible households that subscribe to wireless providers. Some households are content with dial-up, cable or a direct service line internet access through their telephone providers, and Griffin stressed the importance of analyzing customer take rates before implementing the plan.
"We have to be careful in our assumption of what percentage will purchase the system," Griffin said. "A lot of that is pricing."
WCNH will also look into the Burlington Telecom system in Burlington, Vt., and the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network, which is currently seeking funding. The East Central Vermont network is experiencing financial difficulty but has invited people to pre-register for the system on its web site, according to Griffin.