Fiber Optic Comes To East Rock

Amid the usual updates about government and crime, neighbors heard a different kind of presentation at the latest East Rock Community Management Team meeting: a sales pitch, for fiber-optic internet service.

Brian Quinn, director of sales and marketing for Rochester-based GoNetspeed, made that pitch to the management team at its monthly meeting Monday night in the community room of mActivity, a fitness center at 285 Nicoll St.

GoNetspeed’s fiber optic service is an alternative to cable internet companies, such as Comcast and Spectrum, and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) internet companies, such as Frontier. Fiber optic networks communicate information using highly thin strands of glass to conduct light. The fiber lines run along telephone wires, and connect individual homes and businesses to the internet.

Fiber optic networks operate at a significantly higher speed than DSL networks, which run off of copper wire. They can begin to pave the way for the establishment of a high-capacity 5G communications network — which could allow for innovations like driverless cars as well as far faster content creation. That’s the ​“uploading” part of internet use, which most commercial carriers downplay in the quest to sell ​“downloaded” services like streaming movies.

Fiber optic internet allows for ​“symmetrical” upload and download rates, according to Quinn, whereas other forms of internet often have longer uploading speeds than downloading speeds. The uploading speed is important for activities like gaming and tools like security cameras, Quinn said.

GoNetspeed advertises that their lowest-cost package, at $50 per month, has both an upload and download speed of 150 megabytes per second. The most expensive package, at $90 per month, has an upload and download speed of 1 gigabyte per second.

Some companies might advertise to offer 250 or 500 megabytes on the download, Quinn said, but ​“they don’t broadcast their upload speeds.”

According to broadbandnow.com, a site that analyzes speed test records on internet service providers, the average rate at which a file can be downloaded in New Haven is 42.6 megabytes per second.

Quinn emphasized in his pitch that GoNetspeed does not require customers to sign a contract. ​“No taxes, no fees,” he said.

GoNetspeed is expanding in New Haven in two stages. The first phase, which involved implementing fiber optic wires in Westville, began in July of 2018. The company currently has fiber lines in much of the neighborhood, including on Elm Street and Edgewood Avenue. The company is considering expanding to the Yale Bowl area.

The second phase is the company’s growth into East Rock. According to Quinn, GoNetspeed has implemented a fiber line along State Street, from around Trumbull Street to Dixwell Avenue in Hamden.

“You could throw a stone from Goodfella’s to where we started,” he said, referring to the restaurant on Trumbull and State.

GoNetspeed can connect to homes on other streets in the area.

Reaching apartment buildings can be difficult, Quinn told the Community Management Team, since the fiber must reach not only the building but the apartments themselves. When deciding on whether to expand to an apartment complex, GoNetspeed surveys residents to gauge interest.

“We are laying fiber as we speak today,” he said at the meeting.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but this seems like an advertisement,” said one East Rock resident, adding that the pitch was ​“not appropriate for the meeting.”

David Budries, the chair of the Community Management Team, responded that the presentation was meant to be informational for residents. ​“We’re one of the few neighborhoods benefitting,” he said.

Newhallville/Prospect Hill Alder Steven Winter asked whether Quinn’s company would be hiring from New Haven.

“Not at this moment,” Quinn said. As the company grows, however, he said he would consider hiring from the city. As a North Haven resident, investing in the greater New Haven area was important to him, he said.

Within Connecticut, GoNetspeed has established fiber optic networks in Bridgeport, New Haven, Hamden, and West Hartford.