WELLFLEET — Thanks to a new contract with five Lower and Outer Cape towns, Comcast may soon provide broadband internet connections to residents of Truro, Wellfleet, and Eastham who live on roads with 15 or more homes per mile.
But Comcast said that it doesn’t know how many new customers will get connected under the revised service policy.
The telecommunications giant, which ranked number 28 on the Fortune 500 list this year with more than $13 billion in profits, has imposed a “density factor” of 25 residences per mile in Truro, Wellfleet, and Eastham for years. Lowering the factor to 15 is seen as a big win by some town officials.
Marc Goodman, Comcast’s director of public relations, insisted that the company doesn’t know how many homes might now get broadband. After the new contract is signed by all five select boards in December or January, Goodman said, home owners who believe they may qualify for service must ask Comcast to survey their roads.
Goodman did not explain how Comcast has been able to enforce its 25-homes-per-mile density factor without road surveys that supposedly do not exist.
William Hewig III of KP Law negotiated the contract renewal on behalf of the five towns this year. The group includes Orleans and Brewster, which, Hewig said, have had the 15-per-mile factor for the last 10 years.
Hewig said he did not know how many more homes will get a faster internet connection as a result of the new contract. “The hope is it will bring in a lot more cable subscribers,” he said. “But we all know it’s a sparsely populated area.”
By law, Comcast must provide its host towns funding for local programing and other benefits. Those benefits change every 10 years when the contract is renewed. The previous contract was signed in 2010.
“We went into the negotiations saying, ‘All our towns need a lower density. It’s a non-negotiable term,’ ” Hewig said. “Negotiations were long. We were all courteous, but the negotiations were tough.”
Comcast’s Goodman said providing broadband access to new customers might also depend on getting easements to cross private property.
After the contract signing, Hewig said, Comcast will go to all the underserved roads in the area, such as Long Nook Road in Truro, to conduct surveys.
Heather Draz, who lives on Pamet Point Road in Wellfleet, said it won’t help her. There aren’t enough houses there.
Draz’s two sons grew up doing their homework parked outside the Wellfleet Public Library to take advantage of the free wi-fi, she said. All their computer games, movies, and educational materials (she still has one son in college) must be downloaded from the internet to be used later at home.
Draz has been advocating for better broadband for 10 years. She’s a regular at the cable advisory committee meetings.
“If I can’t get it for my kids,” Draz said, “maybe I can get it for my grandkids.”
Draz said the towns all deserve 100 percent connectivity, and the fastest way is to use local, state, and federal funds to pay Comcast to install lines in unprofitable rural areas.
Millions of dollars in state funding has gone to the Berkshires to provide “last mile” infrastructure to towns that are so small and remote that Comcast would never get involved otherwise.
“In some of these towns, you’re more likely to see Bigfoot than to have a great internet connection,” said Steve Johnston of OpenCape. “There was no way for them to ever get connectivity unless the state subsidized a connection.”
OpenCape has used $40 million in state and federal funding to provide “middle mile” fiber-optic cable along Route 6. For most Cape businesses and home owners, however, the middle mile may as well be in Peoria. It’s the last mile that’s necessary.
In last four years, the state’s Broadband Institute has spent millions to provide last-mile broadband to the Berkshires. Meanwhile, Cape Cod has received nothing from the Broadband Institute.
The state’s policy, which dates back to 2008, prioritizes unserved areas like the Berkshires, while Cape Cod is merely “underserved.” And it is not underserved enough to meet the criteria for state funding. A 2010 report by the Truro Cable Advisory Committee found that 93 to 98 percent of Truro homes had access to Comcast broadband. This does not meet the state’s definition of “underserved.”
But try telling that to the 65 to 198 homeowners in Truro who, the study found, have no Comcast access.
State Sen. Julian Cyr is trying to help. He has proposed an amendment to the so-called Endure Act, to provide infrastructure for three Wellfleet roads: Draz’s Pamet Point Road, Bound Brook Island Road, and part of Old County Road.
The Endure Act awaits action by the legislature. The IT Bond Bill, already signed by Baker, grants $1.7 million to OpenCape to be used in part to extend fiber-optic cable from where it stops at the Commons on Bradford Street to the rest of Bradford Street and all along Commercial Street.
Fiber-optic technology is faster than Comcast’s coaxial cable. But Baker has not yet released the funds.
Five years is a coon’s age in technology years, Johnston said, and the 10-year contract with Comcast is glacial.
“Comcast is giving up the density factor — that’s a very small giveaway,” said Johnston. “To me, the 10-year contract is a red flag. It’s an eternity in the technology world. Towns need to ask themselves how they can take control.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the Mass. Broadband Institute’s policy on unserved and underserved areas to Gov. Charlie Baker. The policy was in place before Baker became governor.
