I think there are few people who would disagree with the only true thing he said during the entire press conference. No one in this country has ever seen anything like the year we have just endured.
While the broadband ball is now rolling, resident Jean Atwater-Williams said she wants to make sure everyone knows where that ball is headed and, in an article in the Sandisfield Times, called for a revote on the new route the town is pursuing.
Mt. Washington is going from almost no Internet and sporadic cell service to faster speeds than even Great Barrington, the nearest large hub town, which is served by cable but not at speeds high enough to support a thriving, 21st-century economy.
During the workshop, WiredWest will present, for the first time, a regional solution for operation of a broadband fiber-to-the-home network in any unserved towns in western Massachusetts that choose to join.
In a 7-page letter written last month to Gov. Charlie Baker and copied to numerous state officials, Nat Karns, executive director of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, spelled out how fiddling with inferior cable and wireless services will spell disaster for western Massachusetts and the Commonwealth.
The towns of Sandisfield, New Marlborough, Monterey and Tolland decided to share the pain by hiring an attorney who helped them navigate a legal pathway that would allow the towns to bid out the construction of a fiber optic network and sign a 15-year contract with a service provider to operate it.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration is quietly flirting with massive private companies like Comcast to deliver what will likely be inferior and expensive service to rural towns. “It’s a slow-rolling tragedy that will blight Western Massachusetts for generations.”
-- Susan Crawford, Harvard law professor and director of the Berkshire Center for Internet and Society
Great Barrington, partially served by cable, should get broadband downtown, something Town Manager Jennifer Tabakin has said she is working on. “Great Barrington is our business district. For the town to fulfill its potential, everyone in the business district needs fiber.”
-- State Rep. William 'Smitty' Pignatelli
The town of Alford recently learned that the Massachusetts Broadband Institute will give it $270,000 and also reimburse it for half the cost of getting its utility poles surveyed.
The Massachusetts Broadband Institute paid $1.9 million to lawyers and consultants to undermine the WiredWest collaborative of 32 towns seeking to create a viable rural broadband, high speed Internet network.
“A market dominated by the major cable and telephone companies has failed to provide these citizens with what is fast becoming a basic need like electricity or water.”
-- The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, in report recommending the WiredWest 32-town cooperative as the vehicle for providing essential broadband Internet connectivity for rural Western Massachusetts
“We are charting a new course that recognizes that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the un-served towns in Western Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Broadband Institute will therefore be moving to a more flexible approach.”
-- Peter Larkin, new chair of Massachusetts Broadband Institute
“Affordable broadband Internet is no longer considered a luxury but rather an essential utility. The need for broadband in the 21st century is often compared to the need for electricity or phone service in previous centuries.”
-- Mission statement on Massachusetts Broadband Institute web site
The project calls for a 40-story wind turbine that would not only take care of the town’s energy needs, but also throw off enough extra to sell to other towns and school districts. It is predicted to save the town $100,000 annually.
Ninety-three percent of Alford residents indicated they would sign up for high speed Internet, and if town voters favor the proposed broadband network, Alford will be online by 2017.
