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Select Board tentatively approves move to consolidated communications vendor after prolonged outages
Summary
Staff recommended consolidating town phone and Internet services with a single vendor (referred to in the record as Fidium) after multi-hour outages affected police and fire; the board approved proceeding pending an audit of existing lines, final price details, and budget adjustments.
Town staff told the Select Board on Dec. 9 that the town has experienced multiple outages of phone and Internet service — one lasting over 14 hours — that impaired police and fire operations and other municipal functions. Staff recommended consolidating services under a single vendor (recorded in the discussion as Fidium/Fidium variants) to reduce recurring failures and simplify support.
The presenter said contracting in December could secure favorable pricing; staff estimated one-time savings from avoiding an $8,000 firewall upgrade and two $1,000 switch replacements and projected an annual subscription of roughly $5,500 for four main facilities. The board discussed redundancy (keeping required copper lines for alarms/elevators), asked for a vendor audit to identify removable legacy billing lines, and asked staff to supply precise budget numbers for the next meeting.
A motion to approve moving forward with the vendor, conditioned on completion of an audit and town-counsel/budget review, passed by voice vote. Board members emphasized that some subscription costs may increase but that the town expects net savings when one-time infrastructure costs and redundant services are removed.
