Town of Bristol nationally recognized efforts to expand internet service

BRISTOL — Getting high-speed internet access to small, rural towns has traditionally been a challenging process, seemingly too expensive and difficult to accomplish, but the Town of Bristol proved this assumptions wrong when its Bristol Broadband Now initiative launched a public-private broadband network in September that today delivers high-speed fiber internet to the town.

For this effort, and the latest phase of the project which aims to connect communities throughout Grafton County to the fiber network, the Town of Bristol was recently awarded a Broadband Communities Magazine 2022 Cornerstone Award. According to the magazine, the honor recognizes the town “for its determination and perseverance to bring better broadband to the community and to expand the service to the wider area of Grafton County.”

“It was an incredible honor to see all of the hard work that went into this project recognized by industry leaders,” said Town Administrator Nicholas Coates. “It’s no small feat to build rural broadband today and it took a number of players to make this happen, all of whom share a piece of this award.”

The award was presented to Coates during the magazine’s annual event, The Summit, held in Houston from May 2-5. The Summit brings together broadband system operators around the country to discuss emerging telecommunication issues, as well as give awards to recognize businesses, municipalities and other organizations playing a leadership role in advancing the industry.

The Cornerstone Awards are chosen by a committee of industry leaders, analysts, and writers selected by Broadband Communities. This committee then gives about six Cornerstone Awards annually to private developments, municipalities, communities, companies, and individuals “with outstanding accomplishments in the area of delivering telecommunications for the benefit of the end user.”

As Bristol and Grafton County officials have advocated for more funding for similar projects, they’ve argued that in today’s economy, the internet is an essential utility.

“We continue to talk about the need for equal access to the internet and funding begins to come from state and local governments, because many residents in New Hampshire simply do not have reliable internet access for remote work, virtual learning, or telehealth appointments,” said Coates. “This is how schools, businesses, hospitals operate today, but so many are still being left out.”