HUDSON — The city manager says her administration has had discussions with Stow officials about providing internet service to some businesses there, but no commitments have been made.



"We’ve by far not done anything other than have some discussions," said Hudson City Manager Jane Howington.



Stow Mayor John Pribonic said while there have been discussions about both a possible agreement and the costs associated with it, he emphasized that no decisions have been made on either of those issues. According to Hudson officials, any potential costs associated with an agreement are not yet known.



Velocity Broadband, which is owned and operated by the city of Hudson, has provided high-speed internet service to city businesses since 2015 and now serves 230 businesses.



If the neighboring communities move forward on an arrangement, Howington said both she and Pribonic would ask their respective city councils to approve a memorandum of understanding between their municipalities.



An MOU would give each entity permission "to work in each other’s rights of way," Howington said.



"I’d only do something in another community if there was a partnership and we’d want that partnership to be legislated so that it has legislation and political support behind it," Howington said.



Howington said officials "haven’t gotten that far" in determining whether such an agreement would only involve using existing fiber lines or would also include using fiber lines that are installed at a later date. Velocity Broadband has a fiber line along Seasons Road, which borders Stow.



"If there was a property in Stow on the south side of Seasons Road that wanted to tie in [to the existing fiber line], and there was an MOU between the city of Stow and the city of Hudson, [the property] would tie in to [an] existing [line]," said Howington.



Pribonic said there is a business in his city that "needed a secondary back-up [for internet service]." After that issue came to his attention, he said Stow officials then began examining whether the city should work with Hudson to offer Velocity Broadband to other Stow businesses as either its primary or secondary internet source.



"Without internet connection …you’re out of business until that comes back," Pribonic said.



He said the idea of offering the broadband service is viewed by his staff "as [an] economic stimulator to businesses if they would choose to move to Stow."



Drawing Stow customers is not city’s ‘primary focus,’ official says



Howington notified council about the talks with Stow at council’s Feb. 26 workshop in which Velocity Broadband officials presented their business plan for adding more customers. Will Ersing, chief broadband officer for Velocity, said that the potential customers in Stow are not part of the projections for more customers in Velocity’s business plan.



Jim Stifler, chief economic officer for the city of Hudson, said city officials have spoken with other communities that are interested in "either connecting [to our lines] or doing their own thing. They’re a year, two years or more away. That is precious time where we’re concerned as it relates to this business plan."



Stifler said working with Stow or other communities on possibly offering them fiber service "is not our primary focus."



Stifler said that the business plan that the administration presented to council is "dependent on organic growth in Hudson." He said city officials cannot let the potential opportunity with Stow "distract us from our immediate need, which is quick uptake along the fiber path to grow the top line of this business."



If an agreement is reached between Stow and Hudson, Stifler said he felt a "maximum" of five to seven businesses from Stow in the next two years would connect to the service.



Reporter Phil Keren can be reached at 330-541-9421, pkeren@recordpub.com, or on Twitter at @keren_phil.