Bringing High-Speed Internet to Attleboro Industrial Park No Easy Task

Bringing high-speed internet to one Attleboro business park comes with a price, and for now it's unclear whether Comcast is willing to pay that price. 

Attleboro business owners, the local chamber and city officials recently sat down with Comcast officials to convince the phone, cable and internet giant to bring high-speed internet to the Attleboro Industrial Park on County Street. 

Why would Comcast need to be convinced? 

The cost to bring high-speed to that area of the city comes with a cost for infrastructure, and Comcast is not yet sure whether it is willing to take on that cost. 

"They were suggesting that in order for them to make this work for their financial people and help offset the cost, that we as businesses would look at what it is worth to support the infrastructure," said Ken Tenglin, co-owner of Castechnologies just after the meeting.

"Peope have been inquiring about Comcast coming into the industrial park for 12 years or more," Tenglin said. 

At the meeting, organized by the United Regional Chamber of Commerce, were representatives from the business community, including chamber President Jack Lank and Tenglin, city Budget and Administration Director Barry LaCasse and City Councilor Richard Conti. 

"We are running on DSL (digital subscriber line) and I have better internet access at home than my business," Tenglin said. "We have suffered with Verizon DSL, because their hub is on Bank Street, so our speeds are unrealistically slow."

Chamber President Jack Lank said Comcast is first trying to gather as much information as it can to see if this is a viable project for the company and whether it warrants its investment in the infrastructure.

"This is between a $120,000 and $150,000 project, and they are looking at this as a strictly business decision and what type of return on investment they will get," Lank said.

 "I see both sides of this issue. We need to have high-speed internet brought into the park to make it attractive to businesses looking to relocate into our area," he said. "The companies that are already there are looking to get the high-speed Internet to make their operations more efficient and try and save some money."

LaCasse said the city and business owners are patiently waiting for Comcast to sift through surveys provided to all of the owners at the industrial park before making a decision. 

While nothing was on the table asking for the city's help, Comcast was fishing to see what kind of deal it could get to bring the service in, according to Tenglin. 

Comcast provided surveys to the business owners who attended the meeting and have reached out to the additional businesses to fill out the survey, according to Mark Gorman, a Comcast spokesperson. "We provided surveys and received about half back," he said.

Bringing high-speed internet to the park will be "time consuming and expensive," according to Gorman. "We are just assessing the interest. We will be making our decision in the coming months." 

Gorman would not comment on whether Comcast has plans to ask for the city's help or how much it would cost for the infrastructure, but said the company is available to answer questions from Attleboro business owners, the chamber and city officials.  For now, it's a waiting game, according to Lacasse. 

"Right now, we're waiting for Comcast to finish their survey," Lacasse said. "We're hopeful that Comcast can work their numbers so that they can bring their high-speed internet to customers who want their service."

Lacasse would not say much on whether the city is in a position to help with the cost of infrastructure or whether the city taking a percentage of the cost would be  a deal breaker.

 "It's simply way too premature to speculate about anything else," he said.