The NH Electric Coop plans to bring blazing-fast internet to Orange. This is a very big deal, allowing our town to remain rural and beautiful in the years to come, while increasing residents’ ability to earn a living by telecommuting. Not to mention downloading a movie in seconds!
Alasdair Dunlap-Smith, who serves on Orange’s ad hoc committee on the internet, explains the news. (I inserted a couple of notes in italics.) -Jay
The New Hampshire Electric Co-op (NHEC) has formed a new subsidiary to deliver high-speed fiber-optic internet service to towns like ours. NHEC already delivers electricity to a majority of Orange residents. This new internet service will be available not only to those customers but to most, or all, of the rest of us as well.
NHEC expects to offer download and upload speeds up to one gigabit per second. (That’s a download speed about 40 times faster than what most of us are getting.)
NHEC has already completed gigabit fiber-optic internet service to four towns in New Hampshire with CARES Act funding. The cooperative will not ask the Town of Orange to contribute funds; nor will our electricity bills be increased to pay for the project.
While the buildout of internet service to all NHEC towns could take several years to complete, priority will go to towns such as Orange that are included in the federal grant. NHEC expects to have a public schedule available in the coming months. For updates, check the NHEC website. (We’ll post the news on the town website as soon as we get it. If you’re a subscriber to this site, you’ll be getting an email.)