Negotiations are set to begin next month between Martha's Vineyard towns and Comcast, the Island's only cable service provider.

A prolonged effort to secure cable television and high-speed internet service for Chappaquiddick residents has finally met success. As soon as Comcast receives a final payment, they will prepare to install cable infrastructure on the remote island.

The campaign to bring high-speed internet to Chappaquiddick is short the required number of subscribers, with a little more than two months to go before the mid-December deadline.

It was with some shock that I saw numerous Chappy residents had taken out a half-page ad in the August 15 Gazette entreating Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and President Obama to bring high-speed internet to their island.

A campaign by residents to bring high-speed internet service to Chappaquiddick continues this summer. Comcast will provide cable service if 270 homeowners pay an up-front fee of $2,139 and agree to sign on with the provider for two years. While a majority of Chappy people have said yes to the proposal with checks, a number have been silent or noncommittal, and the July 21 extended deadline for sign-up is fast approaching. Campaign callers working phones say they have heard it all.

Chappaquiddick residents are a step closer to getting cable service, with more than the required number of residents signing preliminary agreements with Comcast.

Under a long-negotiated agreement between the town of Edgartown and Comcast, 270 Chappaquiddick residents had to sign commitment letters indicating their interest in getting cable service by October 1.

Chappaquiddick residents who have fought long and hard to get cable and internet service to the tiny island are less than two weeks away from another critical hurdle.

Comcast has said it needs to receive letters of commitment from two hundred and seventy Chappy homeowners by the first of October in order for the cable giant to provide service. Though more than two hundred and seventy people have verbally committed, according to proponents, an escrow agent at the Edgartown National Bank has received fewer than two hundred and forty letters to date.

With an Oct. 1 deadline fast approaching, Chappaquiddick is nearing the goal for phase one of the small island’s quest to get cable and internet service.

Chappaquiddick resident Woody Filley told the Edgartown selectmen Tuesday that nearly 270 people, the required minimum, have said they will submit commitment letters to Comcast by the deadline.

While debate continues about the placement of cell phone towers in other parts of the Island, Chappaquiddick residents continue to fight to bring cell phone and cable service to the small island off the coast of downtown Edgartown.

The committee negotiating cable television service for the six Island towns signed off Wednesday morning on a draft contract for the next 10 years.

The contract, which now must be ratified by individual towns, includes expanded service to underserved areas, a senior discount and $620,000 in capital funding for the Island public television station MVTV.