🔒‘New Calling Card’: Hopes high that $40M fiber optic internet project will boost East Hartford’s economic growth

State and local officials say they’re optimistic that a new fiber optic broadband system planned for East Hartford, which promises to deliver the fastest internet speeds now available in the U.S., will not only improve connectivity for residents but attract new employers to town and help existing businesses there grow.

“We needed a new calling card for East Hartford,” said Mayor Marcia Leclerc. “We believe this will be a great asset.”

Fiber optic infrastructure developer SiFi Networks plans to install in town the state’s first open access network, meaning the cables it lays will be shared by multiple internet service providers. The $40 million project is privately supported with no cost to taxpayers.

Internet service speeds of up to 1,000 megabytes per second will initially be offered, increasing to 10 gigabytes per second over time. According to SiFi, those speeds are fast enough to eliminate common internet-related issues, such as buffering and slowdowns.

Leclerc said the new system — which is expected to be completed no later than 2024 — will offer hard-to-match advantages to companies looking to relocate or expand into East Hartford and benefit longtime employers such as jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and the huge ecosystem of local manufacturing contractors that support the state’s aerospace industry.

“We have a large manufacturing base that is becoming more automated and reliant on tech,” she said. “And with the pandemic, the need for that internet infrastructure is even greater now.”

Alexandra Daum, a deputy commissioner at the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said the topic of broadband in general comes up in discussions with companies that are looking to relocate to Connecticut, or at least considering it.

“When they’re ‘interviewing’ Connecticut, so to speak, broadband is definitely a top priority,” Daum said. “It’s important for them to know they’ll have the speed and reliability they need.”

And if the East Hartford implementation goes smoothly and bears fruit, Daum added, it could serve as a template for other towns and cities looking to spur new economic growth.

A long road

Leclerc began looking into the advantages of a fiber optic system around 2014 through the Connecticut Gig Project, a coalition of municipalities and state officials that was intended to foster the development of high-speed, low-cost internet service.

Discussions with that group didn’t move forward, the mayor said, but the town continued to look into the technology and issued requests for proposals.

“We got excited about the potential,” she said. “East Hartford has stumbled in the past in trying to find a way to mitigate tax increases and grow our grand list. This was a new avenue to look at.”

The town began communications with SiFi in 2017. The company was interested in East Hartford for a number of reasons, including its population density, which would make a fiber optic project there worth the investment.

Leclerc’s advocacy was another important factor, according to Bob Knight, a SiFi spokesperson.

“I give a lot of credit to the mayor,” Knight said. “She was on a mission to make sure that broadband would be available throughout the community.”

East Hartford ultimately signed an agreement for SiFi to build its network, but it took time to line up investors.

“It’s intricate, somewhat like a real estate deal,” Knight said.

SiFi’s projects are backed by private investors, most often pension funds. The company needs to work with “patient capital,” or investors who can wait for a return on their money when the network is up and running and internet service providers are renting access to use it.

The pandemic threw a wrench into the process, temporarily slowing down planning, but the effort gradually came together, and early last month town officials announced that work would soon begin on the “East Hartford FiberCity” network. Gov. Ned Lamont and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, among others, were on hand for the launch ceremony, and the public got its first look at the large “micro-trenching” machines that will be used to install fiber optic cable throughout the community.

New opportunities

By the end of 2022, SiFi expects to have fiber optic projects underway in 30 cities.

Central to its business model is the open access concept. Though still uncommon in the U.S., open access systems have been held up by some industry figures and municipal planners as a means to deliver faster internet to more people, reduce costs and spur economic development.

Knight said SiFi functions somewhat like the operator of an airport, which maintains the physical infrastructure needed to support operations while renting space to the airlines.

While there’s no guarantee that area telecommunications providers will actually sign on, SiFi has enlisted one company, Flume Internet of New York, to begin offering service once the fiber optic network is up and running.

The company acknowledges that it will end up competing against internet providers that do not sign on to the network, and is now reaching out to local multi-tenant buildings and homeowners associations to explain what they say are the benefits of linking up to the open access system.

One of those competitors will be Comcast, which has deployed hybrid fiber optic-coaxial lines of its own and argues that it is better equipped to handle long-term maintenance, upgrading, cybersecurity and other aspects of internet service.

“We compete everyday with providers that offer different technologies, but customers continue to choose Comcast because we offer an unparalleled internet experience that includes gigabit speeds across our footprint, the best Wi-Fi coverage and controls in the home and a network of more than 20 million Wi-Fi hotspots,” said Kristen Roberts, vice president of communications at Comcast. “We have invested billions in our network to make broadband widely available to more homes and businesses than anyone for decades, including in East Hartford — where gigabit speeds have been available for years.”

A boon to business

SiFi says it’s model will ultimately lower costs for customers in part because it charges a flat rate to internet service providers, which would in theory make pricing more transparent and force the providers to innovate to attract users.

Having physical infrastructure ready to tap into would also remove the often prohibitive cost providers face when looking into new markets, making it easier for more companies to compete in the same region.

The company champions fiber as a higher bandwidth upgrade from standard copper cables, and better to attract investment.

“A fiber optic network can be a real boon to a local economy and can serve as a radiating hub for a lot of job growth and opportunity,” Knight said.

He offered the example of Chattanooga, Tennessee, which in 2011 became the first city in the U.S. to install a fiber system. The local government initially expected to attract a major employer on par with Google, he said, but the network proved more effective in creating an ecosystem that allowed small businesses to scale up and grow.

The city has seen $2 billion worth of economic impact from the project.

“Connecticut has a real opportunity with East Hartford,” Knight said. “It’s relatively affordable and it’s a good place for younger people to put down roots and work. And that’s going to be the future of how we think about economic development.”