High-speed internet is coming to Hartford’s North End. It took nearly 20 years to make it happen.

Yvon Alexandre, the owner of ACA Foods and Vibz Uptown, says his businesses on Main Street in Hartford have suffered for years as a result of slow internet connections.

At ACA, the only grocery store in the North End, unreliable internet has resulted in slow credit card processing speeds and dropped connections that have led to customers sometimes being double charged.

Getting high-speed internet access to the neighborhood has been an issue for nearly two decades, Alexandre said.

“There’s a reason why they say this is an underserved community,” Alexandre said.

On Friday, the city of Hartford and Comcast announced a partnership that will bring high-speed fiber internet to 94 businesses along North Main and Windsor street — including Alexandre’s — by the spring of 2023.

“This announcement is long overdue, and that many, many people have advocated for and worked for, for many years” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin acknowledged at a press briefing outside Phoenix Society on Windsor Street.” These businesses have operated for years and years without that access in a world in which high-speed internet is not a ‘nice-to-have’ it is a ‘must-have’ for businesses of any size.”

The project is coming to fruition thanks to a public/private partnership in which the city is investing $750,000 of the project’s total $1,681,800 cost from funds received from the American Rescue Plan Act specifically set aside for small businesses, and Comcast, which submitted a winning request for proposals last winter.

“It’s our hope this partnership will attract more businesses to this important area.” Carolyne Hannon, Comcast’s senior vice president of the western New England region, said. “Having access to a reliable network that provides speed, security, scalability and functionality is a game-changer in running a thriving business that competes locally and nationally.”

Bronin credited state Sens. Douglas McCrory and John Fonfara for their support in the project.

McCrory, for his part, said $750,000 is “money well spent,” adding that he appreciated the business owners’ patience.

“We’ve been talking about this for a very long time,” he said. “We live in the 21st century, and you know you cannot conduct business unless you are connected to the internet.”

McCrory said the high-speed internet is merely a start to an additional push for investments in the community.

“Those resources are going to come,” he said. “We know what it looks like. We know what red-lining is. We’ve been persecuted for that for the past 40 or 50 years. Now is the opportunity for us to build and grow. And being connected to the internet and having partners like Comcast and the city and state working together, everybody wins.”

Fonfara noted that the businesses in the North Main/Windsor street corridor had to stay open and compete in the open market at a marked disadvantage due to slow internet speeds.

“What seems so elementary for us in this day and age has not been something these businesses have been able to take advantage of,” he said. “I don’t know how you can compete if you don’t have it today.”

Councilwoman Shirley Surgeon said the partnership addresses a long-time concern of business owners, who have “been so innovative in how they have gotten the internet to their businesses so far.”

“It’s not a celebration for me,” Surgeon said, “it is a thank you to the merchants for the time and the length they have waited for this to happen.”

Max Kothari, president of the Hartford Chamber of Commerce, noted that more work needs to be done, particularly from Comcast. He said his wife has owned a hardware store on Main Street for 35 years, but they had to rent an apartment to get a cable box to run internet to the store.

He also cited another property owner who immigrated to the U.S.

“He came to me and said, ‘Max, I am from Africa, in Africa we don’t have it like this,’” Kothari said of the lack of internet connectivity. Kouthari called on Comcast to give area business owners deals because “they have suffered for too long.”

Reggie Hales, the not-so-hirsute president of the Hartford Enterprise Zone Business Association, joked that he had hair when the project began.

“We stood in the North End on many corners, fielding the promises from many utilities who promised to satisfy what we’re about to do today,” he said.

“I love Hartford. Hartford is a place where we should grow equally. … In order to be competitive in this world locally, state and beyond, you have to have the tools to do that. We have been seeking this for 20 years. … I feel that in the growth in the city of Hartford, what is good for one neighborhood is good for all neighborhoods.”