Massachusetts Pursues Its Own Route to Broadband Expansion

Conventional wisdom says a town with less than 200 people wouldn’t have the resources to establish and maintain high-speed Internet for its residents. But Mount Washington, located in Berkshire County (MA) contradicted such wisdom in Nov 2017 when it activated its municipal fiber broadband service.  From one angle, the case of Mount Washington is a miracle. Before broadband, Internet options for the town’s citizens were either dial-up or a long-distance Wi-Fi service that provided a download speed of less than 1 Mbps.  “You could barely use Wi-Fi calling, and it was impossible to stream anything,” said Brian Tobin, Mount Washington select board member. “You could send emails, and you could do Internet searches that just took a long time.” But from another angle, the massive turnaround for Mount Washington, which offers Internet speeds that can reach 500 Mbps, is part of a larger state plan to bring broadband to 53 rural towns that have lacked service to a significant degree. 

Mount Washington benefited from the Last Mile Program, which provided more than $35 million in grants for rural broadband. The program is run by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), which is part of the state agency Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech). Funds from the Last Mile Program wouldn’t have as much practical value for off-the-grid communities if not for a key piece of middle-mile infrastructure called MassBroadband 123, a 1,200-mile, $84.9 million fiber-optic network that covers more than one-third of the state. Although this network’s primary purpose is to give public institutions — such as schools and libraries — broadband access, it helps connect rural communities that otherwise would have greater difficulty finding economically viable last-mile solutions.