A much-anticipated decision came with little fanfare on Thursday night when the Highlands Board of Commissioners selected Hotwire to serve as the town’s broadband network operator.
Following a closed session that lasted close to an hour, the board reemerged into public session online via Zoom and mayor Patrick Taylor called for a motion regarding the selection of a network administrator and the entry into contract negotiations.
The board’s choices were down to two companies – Hotwire and Balsam West, with the former getting the nod by a 4-1 vote. Commissioner Marc Hehn provided the dissenting vote but offered no explanation for his choice.
“During closed session the board of commissioners heard reports from the town attorney, the finance director and the IT director concerning the financial status of the two companies that submitted bids to lease the dark fiber of the Highlands Smart Cities Broadband Network,” Mayor Patrick Taylor said. “The board also heard a report from the town manager concerning the references of the two companies.”
According to Hotwire’s proposal during the town’s recruitment process, the company will begin connecting customers within three months of the upstream bandwidth connection being operational and would continue to build out underground within three years of customer commitment.
Services offered include internet up to 10 gigabytes per second for residential customers along with voice, television, home automation and home security. As part of Hotwire’s proposal they anticipated remitting $10.2 million over the next 25 years to the Town of Highlands.
Balsam West’s proposal called for a “good faith effort” to continue the network build out following the connection of customers and anticipated a payback to the town of $5.39 million over 25 years.
The next step in the process of getting the broadband network up and running is to formalize a contract with Hotwire. Taylor noted that town manager Josh Ward and town attorney Jay Coward will begin that process as soon as possible.
“Town staff will develop a draft contract for the leasing of the dark fiber,” Taylor said. “The draft contract will be reviewed by the board and then sent to Hotwire Communications for their review and acceptance.”
Highlands was has been in the process of constructing the fiber network for approximately a year at a cost of $4.8 million. Because municipalities are barred from operating as internet service providers by North Carolina state statutes, the town had to find an operator to lease the network once completed.
An agreement was reached earlier in 2020 with Wide Open Networks to operate the town’s network, but that deal fell apart during the contract negotiations stage and forced the town to review other options. After putting out a request for proposals in August, the board received three proposals before narrowing the choices to Hotwire and Balsam West.