Nasewaupee Selects Grant-Writing ISP Partner

The Nasewaupee Town Board agreed Sept. 15 to authorize its broadband committee to negotiate with internet service provider (ISP) Bertram Communications, with the goal of creating a memorandum of understanding for writing a grant to get fiber internet to the town. The grant deadline is Nov. 2.

Committee member David Allen told the board that the committee interviewed Nsight and Bertram twice, and both companies were capable of grant writing and installing infrastructure.

“The both basically, we believe, can perform at the same level,” he said. “The main difference between choosing Bertram, which is our recommendation, over Nsight is that some of their cost structures were more beneficial to the town upfront, and some of their internet costs on an ongoing basis would be more beneficial to an internet user.”

By negotiating exclusively with Bertram, Allen said that would provide an outline of what the company would do for the town.

In the Town of Baileys Harbor, which has already secured a grant to begin providing fiber to every residence and business, the town chose Nsight, refusing a late-entry pitch from Bertram. The primary difference between the two was how the companies would build out the infrastructure: Bertram said it would bury all cable, and Nsight intends to string fiber on existing utility poles where it can.