The Declaration of Independence makes crystal clear that the Founders fought for the proposition “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …” Having lost the 2020 election, Donald Trump became the first president in our history to oppose the peaceful transfer of power and to try, in...
Monterey has been notified of the receipt of a grant from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute as part of the Last Mile broadband initiative to help communities and companies wire towns, but the town cannot access the funds because they were contingent on Charter-Spectrum being the provider.
In his letter to the editor, Patrick Fennell writes: "Berkshire County has three Registry of Deeds offices; Suffolk County with a population 780,000 has but one and no one questions the waste."
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.
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.
Mt. Washington, with a population of around 150 full-time residents, is the second town to get MBI “last mile” funding for a “fiber to home” project. The project should be completed by mid-to-late 2017.
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
