Northampton voters face choice for municipal internet service after City Council vote - MassLive.com

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Northampton voters will have a choice this fall: to give the city the option to create municipal broadband internet, or to stop the project in its tracks.

The City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to put a question on the November ballot asking whether city officials should be allowed to create the a publicly-owned company that could provided internet access.

The ballot question is procedural, but necessary, city councilors say. State regulations require that any town or city hoping to build a “municipal light plant,” the formal name for the infrastructure behind broadband internet, ask its residents first. After passing the city council, the measure will now go to the voters on Nov. 2.

The language surrounding the question is “arcane,” three city councilors said. But the state requires Northampton to use the term “municipal light plant” to describe the system that could be built, even though it would supply internet access, not electricity.

“There isn’t a physical electric plant that we’ll be voting on,” Councilor Karen Foster (Ward 2) said in an interview. “There will be a physical space, but it’s to provide municipal broadband. It’s not for a power plant.”

“The ballot question is going to be really confusing,” At-Large Councilor William Dwight said prior to Thursday’s city council meeting. “Basically, we’re asking — if circumstances allow and if we can afford it — would you be in favor of having municipal WiFi, against Comcast, for instance.”

Given the phrasing of the question though, some councilors believe properly informing the public on this question will be a tall task.

“We need to educate people about what that term means and tell them that this doesn’t start the process of constructing the facility, it just gives the city permission,” Ward 7 Councilor Rachel Maiore said in an interview.

If the question passes, the city will turn to a study expected to be released this winter on the feasibility of the project. The study will include details on the cost of establishing municipal internet, as well as the results of a survey conducted last year on the public’s interest in the service.

Other Massachusetts towns and cities, such as Holyoke and Braintree, already have similar services.

City counselors say they believe residents are strongly in favor of establishing city-owned internet.

Though details on the cost of the program are not yet available, if created, publicly-provided WiFi could allow for a less-expensive option than services provided by companies like Comcast or Verizon.

“This past year-and-a-half has really highlighted that internet is not a ‘nice to have’ anymore,” Foster said. “It’s really a public utility.”

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