CHICOPEE - The city's electric company hopes to begin offering high-speed broadband Internet this year, first making the service available to local businesses and then building out a network neighborhood-by-neighborhood.

But one City Councilor who has studied how communities throughout the country have offered Internet services to their citizens said he will push to take a more aggressive approach to creating a full fiber optic network faster that can reach all residents and businesses in the city.

City officials have been studying ways to offer high speed broadband Internet through Chicopee Electric Light for several years and feel they can offer a better service at a competitive price than is currently available and give residents a new option to connect to the Internet.

Currently the city has fiber optic cable that could provide high speed Internet around the borders of the city and in some key spots, giving Chicopee Electric Light a "backbone" for the network.

"I can't tell you how valuable that is," said Robert Liswell, technology projects manager for the city.

The plan is to first offer high speed Internet to businesses and expand the fiber network to serve the companies who are interested in connecting. Chicopee Electric Light should be able to roll that out by this summer, Jeffrey R. Cady, Chicopee Electric Light general manager, said.

As businesses sign up and pay for the service, it would then give Chicopee Electric Light the capital to continue working on expanding the service, he said.

"We are very excited about this potential but we are also cautious because we don't want to do anything negative for the ratepayers," Cady said.

The next plan would be to create a "fiberhood" for 200 to 300 homes, starting where the demand is highest. From there Chicopee Electric Light would continue to expand neighborhood-by-neighborhood, he said.

Chicopee Electric Light would also eventually have to hire staff who would oversee the Internet service, he said.

With a phased-in approach, Chicopee Electric Light would be able to use money from reserves and Internet service fees to fund the expansion and would not have to bond for the program. He estimated it would take between five and 10 years to build out a full system.

It is too early to say what the fee would be for Internet service but Cady said, "Our rates would be competitive."

The idea has been discussed by city officials for several years and a feasibility study was done on offering Internet through Chicopee Electric Light a few years ago, said City Councilor Joel McAuliffe, who worked as the special projects and communication manager for Mayor Richard J. Kos when the feasibility study was done.

"The plan that I'm advocating for is a quicker and faster buildout," McAuliffe said. "We have the fiber backbone in place after years of building up the network for Chicopee Electric Light and inner-city services."

McAuliffe said he will push to go out to bond for the estimated $30 to $35 million that would be needed to complete the fiber network and then use fees charged to residents and businesses who subscribe to the service to pay off the bond.

There are huge benefits to offering municipal Internet. It would be faster than what Charter Cable currently provides, Chicopee Electric Light could offer competitive and likely less-expensive rates and it can also help to attract businesses and residents to the city if they know that municipal high-speed Internet is available, he said.

"It will have a real, direct impact for everyday people in their real lives," he said.

McAuliffe compared that to the proposal to spend more than $14 million to repair structural failings and renovate City Hall. He argued far more people would use municipal Internet than will ever walk through the doors of City Hall.

Municipal Internet is becoming more popular. Chattanooga, Tennessee is known for offering a solid program and is now working to expand it to other communities, but officials there are facing opposition, especially from larger cable companies, McAuliffe said.

Locally Holyoke Gas & Electric now offers municipal Internet to businesses, including some in Chicopee, and Westfield Gas & Electric has also begun offering Internet to about a quarter of its residents, McAuliffe said.

"It is a major opportunity for the city and I think we would be foolish to pass it up," McAuliffe said.