Union Station in Worcester, MA, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
PRINCETON — The Princeton Broadband Municipal Light Plant has terminated its contract negotiations with Matrix Design Group, ending a joint effort to establish high-speed Internet service for the town.
Selectmen in their roles as commissioners for the broadband light plant signed a memorandum of understanding in October with Matrix to negotiate toward an agreement to design, build, operate and maintain a fiber-optic network for high-speed Internet service. Town meeting approved borrowing $1.2 million for the make-ready work that needs to be done before the network installation.
But while the town authorized borrowing the money, the broadband light plant commissioners could not secure authorization from bond counsel to borrow the money without an operating agreement that said the town had control over the design, construction, operation, maintenance and pricing of the network.
Selectman Stanley Moss, who has been involved in the negotiations with Matrix, said negotiations broke down over the issue of control of the network.
Mr. Moss said he was told by Matrix representatives that since that was not how they did broadband service in New Jersey, they were certainly not going to do it that way in Massachusetts.
