Cable television, internet and telephone competitor Breezeline has begun installing fiber optic cable in Haverhill as the company moves closer to offering its “fiber-to-the home” services to residents.
A crew from Brookfield, Vt.-based Eustis Cable Enterprises was hanging cable Wednesday along North Avenue in Haverhill. A contractor told WHAV the wiring project enters Haverhill from the company’s recently constructed headend in Plaistow, N.H.
Mayor Melinda E. Barrett, who voted to approve Breezeline as a city councilor in 2022, believes rivalry between Comcast and Breezeline will benefit residents and possibly bring fewer price increases.
“Oh, it’s going to be wonderful just to have that competition. That’s one of the biggest complaints we ever get in this office still,” she said.
The mayor told WHAV she; the city engineering, public works and fire departments; and utility contractor, Merrimac Light met with Breezeline a month or so ago. She pointed out Breezeline is building redundancy into its new system for reliability with feeds coming from both its Plaistow and Salisbury headends. The mayor said she does not expect the company to solicit business locally until the two loops are in place.
As WHAV reported in May, Breezeline Head of Corporate Communications Andrew Walton said work would progress as the company receives permits “from multiple parties … for underground work, road [or] highway crossings and more.”
Walton said residents may expect upload and download speeds up to one gigabit per second.
Haverhill city councilors signed off on the project—the first large-scale competitor to the dominant Comcast—during September of 2022. At the time, Breezeline Director of Government Affairs Francis Bradley assured City Councilor John A. Michitson that the service would be offered to every Haverhill household no matter where they are located. He promised, “We’re not going to cherry pick.” He estimated Breezeline would spend $28 to $30 million on the buildout.
The contract with the city requires Breezeline pay an annual license fee to the city of 50 cents per subscriber per year; a franchise fee of 5% of its local gross revenues for annual support of public access, educational and government channels; and $110,000 per year for capital costs of local access stations. In addition., those channels will be served in high-definition quality.
Breezeline, once known as Atlantic Broadband, is a subsidiary of Canadian-based Cogeco Communications.