By Patrick J. McNally, Reporter
Sterling Municipal Light Department is bringing a new service to Sterling residents — Local Area Municipal Broadband, or “L.A.M.B.” for short.
Darren Borge, general manager of SMLD, said the project started a few years ago with the idea of creating a town-owned and managed internet service.
“This new internet service would be town owned and town managed, using the bandwidth from Shrewsbury,” Borge said. “We spoke with consultants, asked if we could provide fiber direct to home (as an internet service provider), and were advised that we could move forward as an ISP. Once we made that decision, we realized that we needed to create a name for our department, one that speaks directly to the town of Sterling. After bouncing around a few ideas, the perfect name was chosen.”
Local Area Municipal Broadband or L.A.M.B., he said. “This name was perfect for Sterling yet allows for possible expansion of their capabilities and service territories to other local municipalities as well, should those needs arise in the future.”
But they also wanted to use the service to help locate faults faster, to reduce impacts on customers. “We thought it would be cool to do that, but how? So, we kept it on the back burner,” he said.
Then in 2018 a grant opportunity came up for town departments to get onto a fiber network.
“We mulled it over at the time. During a team meeting, a comment was made to Mike Hale (then GM of SELCO – Shrewsbury Electric & Cable), saying ‘we wish we could connect fiber to you guys.’ And they said, ‘Well, why can’t you?’ And that stirred the pot, got us thinking some more,” Borge said. “Once we got approval of the grant, we worked with SELCO to provide bandwidth to us. We then worked with Boylston and West Boylston to split the costs of the cables within each interdepartmental collaborative. … We ran 23 miles of fiber in 4.5 months, from Shrewsbury (Boylston side, by 140/290) down 140, into West Boylston, through Boylston, into Sterling on 140/at 190, and then brought it through Sterling, to the Leominster line (Route 12). … That way, we can tie the most amount of town facilities and assets into one single route. We directed it in a way to capture most town departments.”
They got creative too, instead of under sizing the fiber cable they decided to oversize the cable, Borge said, “Instead of going with a 24-fiber pair, we went with a 432-fiber pair. So, we serviced all the town buildings for the INET, that way all town departments can save an incredible amount of money, by getting away from the “traditional” broadband services (i.e., Comcast/Xfinity).”
A video announcement for L.A.M.B. was created by A to D Media and Design and is posted on the SMLD Facebook page. This video highlights the history of the SMLD and the exciting times that are ahead for this program.
A soft rollout is planned, which will occur over four phases. Upon assessment of this rollout, plans will be made to address further expansion throughout town.
According to Borge, the town of Sterling is set to receive funds from the federal government via the American Rescue Fund. A total of $352,000.00 was voted on and approved to be allocated toward expanding the town’s INET systems (cable and hardware). This would allow access to the radio towers, water pump & storage stations and other town assets and facilities.
“This shift will result in approximately $66,000 in savings per year for the town on the INET system alone,” Borge said, “with an additional $8,500 per year savings for Sterling each year as we expand this service to more businesses, facilities, and residents.”
He said, “The cables are up; the fibers are ready to go. SMLD is running on it (no Comcast needed since last August), with the Town hall, Library, Senior Center, DPW, Fire, and Police wired and ready to go with the new program, once activated.”
L.A.M.B. will offer 250Mbs, 500Mbs, 750Mbs, and 1 Gbs full fiber to home service. Whatever your download speed is, your upload speed will be the same. For example, 250Mbs up and 250Mbs down, which will improve video quality for gaming, streaming, and video conferencing – removing latency, Borge said.
Borge said the “All-In” pricing structure for this internet is: $65/month for 250Mbs. $80/month for 500Mbs. $90/month for 750Mbs. $105/month for 1Gbs.
“Each plan includes 24/7 local help desk support, router rental, bandwidth speeds, and link to your personal App suite. It will be the same price today as it will be in 10 years (unless you wanted to add other services),” said Borge said.
As part of the initial rollout, they will provide each new customer with a complimentary 4K Roku streaming stick (a $40 value). “During the install, we’ll show you how to set it up, how to connect to wi-fi,” Borge said. “The customer can decide which streaming TV services they want via the Roku stick. You own the stick — no monthly charges (bye-bye monthly set top box fees). If you want to add more TVs, simply add more Roku sticks to each TV you would like, and they will quickly pay for themselves.”
Borge said the staff at SMLD, and the cooperation they have had with the town throughout this process has been incredible.
“It’s for the community. With the new ways of technology, it really comes down to what our community wants & needs, and we do our best to satisfy those requests. If we can help residents save money via fiber, like we do on electric, that’s a win-win for everyone,” Borge said, adding he’d love to “Get everybody on the L.A.M.B.”