Jamie Rooke helps Lisa Juan of Kimely-Horn identify the town’s dead zones, where cellular signal is lost.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen
EAST LONGMEADOW — East Longmeadow is working to close the digital divide in town with the help of a $55,994 grant from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute’s Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program. A steering committee made up of residents and town staff is working with the consulting firm Kimley-Horn to identify inequities in the ability of residents and businesses to use the internet.
According to Bill Scully, senior project manager at Kimley-Horn Associates, there are three main components to digital equity: digital literacy skills, adequate device access and affordable and reliable broadband access. Broadband is defined as high-speed internet speeds with download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of at least 20 megabits per second. Scully said high-speed internet is important for telehealth services, public safety, those who work from home, education, energy and transportation.
“It’s essential and almost required to be connected 24/7,” Scully said.
The project is in the public outreach phase to gather information about problems residents experience. There have been four public meetings, including pop-up events at the Pleasant View Senior Center and the East Longmeadow Public Library on Nov. 20. There is also a survey available at tinyurl.com/458humer. After the outreach is finished and the town’s challenges and potential solutions are identified, Scully said East Longmeadow will be eligible for grants to implement solutions to the town’s digital equity issues.
There are common digital equity issues found in communities across Massachusetts, Scully said. These include slow Wi-Fi connections, a lack of digital literacy skills and the high cost of internet. While Transport Engineer Lisa Juan with Kimley-Horn said many of the people the Kimley-Horn team have spoken with have said cost is not much of an issue, several older residents said they do not have an internet connection at home to avoid the cost.
Scully said almost all small communities in which Kimley-Horn has worked have a single internet provider and an absence of competition. The majority of residents in East Longmeadow have Spectrum internet service, although there are East Longmeadow residents who are customers of T-Mobile, Verizon and Starlink’s broadband services. However, the data collected for the project shows none of the options provide high-speed internet to commercial customers.
East Longmeadow is trying to address the lack of broadband competition by building a town-owned fiber optic internet network with Whip City Fiber from Westfield Gas and Electric. Even so, Scully said that there are steps that need to be taken to eliminate other sources of digital equity.
Deputy Town Manager Rebecca Lisi said digital equity and the fiber network are connected. She said, “Opting into a novel form of service, when you’re navigating through streaming services, can be a barrier.” Developing a plan to eliminate barriers will clear the way for more people to take advantage of municipal fiber. Because the cost of the network is shared by users, more users will result in more affordable subscription rates.
Two of the potential digital inequity solutions that have been identified so far — determining which technology can bring broadband to residents in their homes and modernizing broadband infrastructure in public spaces — can be addressed by municipal fiber. Other possible include hiring staff to coordination with town departments on the implementation of digital equity plans, outreach efforts such as workshops or door-to-door contact, organizing town-run digital literacy programs, and providing refurbished internet-capable devices to certain populations and cellular hotspots to those without stable housing.
A final plan to address inequities is expected to be ready for implementation in March 2025.
