Bethel Officials
Are Shortsighted

You’ve got to love it when the presenter of a proposal to bring telephone, television, and high-speed Internet access at a fraction of the cost of current providers’ services (in places where they are even available) asks "does anyone not want to see these services available?"

And one person, among the approximately 35 assembled, raises his hand. And he’s the town manager of Bethel.

That’s what happened at the Nov. 6 presentation by the East Central Fiber Network board in Bethel. While I respect having questions or even not understanding the project in its entirety, you could not ask for a better illustration of what’s wrong with this town.

Prior to this meeting, I had reported to Town Manager and to Selectmen Neal Fox and Eric Benson in person at a local business meeting, and informed them of the details of the project. At the meeting, the Selex said that the proposal sounded good.

Last week, the Bethel Selex met and discussed, among other things, the ECFiber.net proposal. Their reactions included the following, as reported by the Herald:

• Town Manager Dell Cloud "expressed doubts about the projects legality." Selectman Eric Benson "seemed to concur with Cloud’s concerns."

I wonder what their doubts are, and why 15 other towns who want to do this don’t seem to share his concerns, at least, not enough to stop them from signing on.

• Chairman Neal Fox said "I can’t tell you I fully understood it."

I can’t tell you that this surprises me, for a couple of reasons. To this end, I would strongly recommend that Chairman Fox does more research, or appoints someone who does understand the technical and legal aspects of this proposal so that he can make an informed decision.

* "Benson and Richards expressed concern that the rates quoted might actually be much higher…"

ECFiber’s proposal says that for approximately $50/mo, they could provide 1Mbps Internet access, $0.02/min local and $0.05/min long distance telephone, and 20 television stations. This project is modeled after the successful offerings of Burlington Telecom.

At my house, I currently pay $69/mo for satellite Internet, $40 a month for an additional telephone line for dialup Internet access, and $55/mo for our main telephone line. Take these numbers and you’ll see I am paying around $165 a month, and we don’t even get television service. Even if ECFiber’s proposal was to be triple what they propose, it would be a tremendous upgrade because the service would be available, and I would still not be paying any more than I do now.

Most residents of Bethel do not have access to high speed Internet. Those who do must suffer the horrid customer service and policies of Verizon and Comcast. People in remote areas, where Verizon and Comcast have no plans of ever offering service, must endure the pleasures of satellite or dial-up Internet access, neither of which is suitable to many current applications.

Now, I fully understand and appreciate having questions and wanting them answered before signing off on something. That is prudent and wise. However, remember that despite all of these concerns listed above, 15 surrounding area towns have given the go-ahead for this plan to take place. What we appear to be seeing here is outright rejection of a proposal to advance the state of technology in this town, for no good reason.

The Town Manager’s initial reaction and the selectboard’s responses clearly seem to indicate that they are not just skeptical, but hostile to the idea simply because they lack information.

Peter C. Nikolaidis

Gaysville

Bethel business owner