GoNetSpeed Wires New Britain For Fiber Optic With $5 Million In City’s Federal Covid Funds

Company Rolls Out New Internet Service At Introductory Rates To Homes, Businesses; Citywide Access Expected By Early Summer

By John McNamara

NEW BRITAIN – A new internet service provider (ISP) is offering residential and business customers high-speed connectivity in all parts of the city thanks to a $5 million public subsidy.

In June 2022 the Common Council selected Gonetspeed as the winning bidder and authorized up to $7 million to make fiber optic internet available and to link fiber to municipal buildings and traffic controls. That includes $5 million for Gonetspeed. An additional $2 million was authorized to bring fiber optic to municipally-owned assets. Gonetspeed puts the total cost of implementation at $10 million.

The “public-private partnership” is phase I of a “citywide communications master plan” and is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the 2021 law that aids communities recovering from the pandemic with support for a wide range of allowable activities.

Gonetspeed, a relatively small but fast growing player in the ISP industry, is completing 175 miles of high-speed fiber optic wiring into New Britain after launching services in suburban towns in recent years.

The company’s expansion into Connecticut and other New England states stems from investments by Oak Hill Capital, a Stamford, CT-based private equity firm, that acquired Gonetspeed in 2020 for $106 million. Gonetspeed was founded as a telecommunications provider in 1998 in Bangor, Maine. It is now based in Rochester, New York.

Under ARPA, the U.S. Treasury has encouraged investments in internet access that “reach unserved and underserved households and that would be unlikely to be made by the private sector.”

According to a report on use of pandemic relief funds for broadband infrastructure the federal government “encourages using strong labor standards, including project labor agreements and community benefits agreements that offer wages at or above the prevailing rate and include local hire provisions to support the economic recovery through strong employment opportunities for workers. Treasury will seek information from recipients on their workforce plans and practices.”

Neither labor nor any formal community benefits agreements, however, appear to be a part of the New Britain-Gonetspeed partnership. Federal requirements only “encourage” but do not require fair labor standards and community benefits when the federal funds are expended locally.

Gonetspeed, is providing a new choice for residents in a market that until now had limited options to give consumers leverage in how much they will pay for internet services. Its Berlin headquarters opened last month and employs 106 people.

The project is on time for an “early summer” completion date. According to a company spokesperson 9,000 locations in the city’s southwest corner are already wired for service.

“The company is stepping up its marketing campaign in April…… A “Learn How To Cut The Cord” program will be held at New Britain Public Library on Tuesday, April 18 and a “Gonetspeed Town Hall” will be held at The Assembly Room on April 20th.”

A Competitor To Xfinity, Others

Like other ISPs Gonetspeed offers connectivity at varying prices based on megabytes per second (Mbps), a unit that measures the speeds at which users upload and download data. Gonetspeed’s sales pitch is a $39.99 introductory monthly rate and a free router to lure customers away from Xfinity (Comcast), one of the original cable television providers in New Britain that dominates the broadband market locally.

The company is stepping up its marketing campaign in April with four events. The city’s microbreweries, Five Churches Brewing (held on April 13) and Alvarium Beer Company (April 19) are the venues for pop up music and trivia sessions. A “Learn How To Cut The Cord” program will be held at New Britain Public Library on Tuesday, April 18 and a “Gonetspeed Town Hall” will be held at The Assembly Room on April 20th.

Gotnetspeed will now compete with Xfinity and others (Frontier, Verizon) on every street offering fiber optic connections faster than conventional DSL and cable.

Affordable Connectivity Program

Escalating prices before and after the pandemic limited access to high quality internet in many communities where a significant percentage of low and moderate income residents live. The pandemic excacerbated the “digital divide” when internet access became a necessity.

In localities with high percentages of poverty ISP companies have been criticized for “digital redlining” by not making investments in many rural and urban areas not considered profitable. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) survey data “indicates that the median, non-promotional cable modem service price — which includes nearly two thirds of the broadband market’s subscriptions — increased more than 34 percent between 2015 and 2020, approximately four times the rate of inflation.”

In the aftermath of the pandemic crisis the federal government stepped in again to make internet services more accessible and affordable in underserved communities. Gonetspeed and other ISPs in New Britain are participating in the Affordable Connectivity Program adopted as part of a the “bipartisan” infrastructure law that recognized high speed internet as essential to infrastructure upgrades alongside roads, bridges and transit.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) provides eligible households $30 per month off their internet bills. ACP-eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers. 

Potential subscribers may sign up through ISP providers. Eligible individuals qualify based on participation in Lifeline, SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, FPHA, Veterans Pension, Survivors Pension, free and reduced price lunch program, school breakfast program, current Federal Pell Grant, WIC, or those with household incomes falling below 200% of federal poverty guidelines.

New Britain has received $56 million in federal ARPA relief funds and by early 2022 had committed $29,307,656 that included the funding of the fiber optic project and another $10 million for a new Osgood Park.

Overall New Britain ARPA aid is funding $10 million for the communications master plan, according to a New Britain Progressive story last September.

A “Final Rule” from the federal government says that recipients must return any funds not obligated by December 31, 2024 and funds obligated but not expended must be returned by the end of December in 2026.