Back in March, we provided an idea of the costs for businesses in Northampton to get high-speed Internet service from what is pretty much our sole supplier: Comcast.
Now we have more details, thanks to coalition member Ryan. Ryan has spent a lot of time on the phone with Comcast trying to quantify these rates. They are to say the least eye-opening, if not heart-palpitating. It helps to have deep pockets.
Here are the minimum monthly costs for businesses for dedicated (not shared) lines to your business. This shows the download followed by the upload rate.
- 50mbps/50mbps – $107
- 100mbs/100mbps – $157
- 250mbs/250mbs – $257
- 500mbs/500mbs – $507
- 1gbps/1gbps – $1007
- 10gbps/10gbps – $25,000
Installation costs involve bringing out a line to your business. These costs are extra and range from $25,000 – $50,000.
At these rates it’s hard to understand why any business would choose to move to Northampton. However, in 2020 when its service is available, businesses could move to Plainfield and pay from $100-$800 for symmetrical 1gbps access (up to 1 terabyte of bandwidth per month), depending on the number of users.