Lowell, Massachusetts becomes testing ground for boosting broadband adoption

Increasing broadband adoption isn't just about building out networks in underserved areas -- it's also about showing people who don't use broadband what they're missing.

To that end, the federal government has awarded the University of Massachusetts in Lowell a grant of $783,000 to design and implement a broadband promotion program in Lowell, Mass. The grant awarded is part of the $4 billion in broadband stimulus funding released by the government this past summer. The program's key initiative will be to build 11 public computer centers that UMass Lowell estimates will "serve 6,650 new broadband users and add 7,500 additional broadband subscribers" in Lowell and the Merrimack Valley area. Robert Forrant, a professor in the Department of Regional Economic and Social Development at UMass Lowell, says the program will have three major areas of focus: working with local youth organizations to help students get after-school broadband access; working with senior centers to help educate elderly residents in the Merrimack Valley area about the uses of broadband technology; and building the 11 computer centers.

"Our goal is to democratize broadband usage," Forrant says. "By creating a larger and wider infrastructure, the project will hopefully help the economic development of the region. If more people have access to high-speed Internet communications, the better the region will be equipped for what we hope will be an economic revival in the future."