NEWRY — On Tuesday, Manager of Economic Development at Community Concepts Mia Purcell gave Newry selectmen an update on the town’s broadband.

Newry currently has Spectrum as its internet service provider. Parts of the town have little to no internet service, and as the area has continued to grow and turn into a year-round place for many new people to live, the higher the demand has become for better service.

Newry also has Spectrum as a cable service provider. Firstlight Fiber provides Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). Firstlight’s DSL service has had issues with reliability and speed at times.

Purcell said she had reached out to multiple condo associations to learn about their experiences with internet connectivity. Many of the condos have cable and many reported back that they have heard complaints about the service.

“The more people who are using a shared system at the same time, the slower it gets,” Purcell said.

Newry has a cable franchise agreement with Spectrum, which it renewed a couple of years ago. The agreement is good through 2030. If Newry wanted to expand service currently, Spectrum is ideally looking for 20 homes per mile.

“They are trying to look at the subscription rate of people per mile to determine whether it meets their bottom line,” Purcell said. “This is a private utility, not a public utility, so they are looking to make sure that they make money and can continue.”

Purcell led her conversation on DSL into Optical Fiber, which she considers “the future.” Fiber offers better speeds and is more reliable, which would help many people working from home in remote areas.

“What we’d like to do is dark fiber, which would be unlit fiber, and multiple internet service providers could use it and offer service, which would create greater competition and potentially lower your prices,” Purcell said.

Purcell said fiber can last at least 20 years and possibly longer, while cable and DSL are not as durable. She said one of the only downsides of fiber is that it’s more expensive. However, she said it becomes less expensive once the infrastructure is in place.

Purcell said Axiom recommended to the town that they reach out to Firstlight Fiber and ask if it would be willing to expand its fiber. She said that fiber has been expanded on Mount Will Road and that it has already happened at Powder Ridge. Purcell gave Town Administrator Amy Bernard a contact at Firstlight for more information.

Axiom is a company whose goal is to help expand broadband in rural communities that are under served. Purcell consulted with Axiom, who was able to provide her with much of the information included in her presentation.

Discussion ended with no decision made regarding broadband expansion.

The Newry selectmen will next meet on Tuesday, Jan. 8 at 5 p.m. at the Newry Town office.

swheeler@bethelcitizen.com