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The Massachusetts Broadband Institute is proposing a plan to federal officials to bring broadband infrastructure to over 40 Western Massachusetts communities where high-speed Internet is unavailable or has low adoption rates.
The institute, created by law last year and operating under the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, plans to file this week an application for up to $105 million in stimulus funds through the U.S. Department of Commerce. The funding would go toward mapping the broadband assets of the state as well as building a so-called “middle mile” broadband fiber network around Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire Counties.
The middle mile connects the fiber assets that end in Springfield to town centers of Western Massachusetts through a network of concentric circles. The connection points, which would require small shelters, would then be used not only by homeowners but by schools, libraries and police and fire departments that currently have little access to broadband.
“The communities, they’re waiting for this. They’re waiting for the hose to come, waiting in the desert,” said Sharon Gillett, outgoing director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute.
Gillett said the infrastructure would allow smaller Internet service providers to come in and provide service between the middle mile and the home, adding competition and potentially lowering the cost of broadband service.
The institute gave out the first funds in late Jule from the $40 million bond bill that established the group, awarding $4.3 million to lay fiber along Interstate 91.
Parts of the area have seen increased interest by traditional telecommunications companies such as Verizon Communications Inc., which invested several million dollars in rolling out DSL service to nearly two dozen communities last year. But some of those communities, as well as others previously considered adequately served by broadband providers under state definitions, are still considered underserved by the federal government either because less than 90 percent of the community has access to high-speed Internet or because of low adoption rates.
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