By Melanie Petrucci, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – Shrewsbury Electric and Cable Operations (SELCO) General Manager Michael Hale addressed the Board of Selectmen at their meeting Jan. 9 to update them on initiatives in Shrewsbury.
“We are at a turning point in the cable franchise within Shrewsbury,” Hale said. “It started as a video entity that provided cable TV and then over time additional services were added – internet and phone to make it a so-called ‘triple play.’ We are now at a crossroads and we will be pivoting from our primary product of video or cable television to our primary product being broadband and our secondary product being video and phone.”
The driving factors are customers are being driven to cut the cords and pull the plugs due to content providers escalating prices and SELCO can no longer do anything but pass them along to the customer. Baby boomers are cutting the cord and millennials are never subscribing to cable and they are finding their entertainment elsewhere through streaming. In the last year, 500 customers unplugged from cable.
“SELCO is faced with two choices, pay the ransom or go dark,” Hale added.
Between the conglomerates and the four major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX), costs have gone from $1.99 to over $10 a month and, by 2020, the costs are estimated to be at or over $14 for the four major broadcast networks alone.
“We pay the ransom but not without a lot of research,” he said.
On the broadband side, SELCO has increased speeds on their three levels of service which include their Silver level (100 megabytes per second), Gold (200) and Platinum (300), which is better than all providers in the area with the exception of Fios. Last fall they introduced a robust WiFi router product. They are also looking toward adding true fiber.
Regarding the electrical operations, natural gas prices have spiked as a result of the recent severe cold snap. Last week oil was cheaper than natural gas because some gas plants were significantly constrained, gas prices spiked and resources were shuffled. The situation wasn’t helped by the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant being taken out of service during last week’s Nor’easter.
Hale also reported that bids were going to be taken soon for the new Natural Gas Peaking Plant recently approved by Town Meeting. Construction is to begin in the spring. SELCO was approved for a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency for a new fuel-efficient bucket truck and in 2018 they will also study the replacement of meters with the next generation technology.
Relevant to broadband, Selectman Moe DePalo asked, “As people begin to stream content more does that mean that the capacity of the bandwidth needs to also be built up?”
Hale replied that it did and that the focus is now on a robust broadband delivery system.
“We are ahead of the curve,” he reported.