Massachusetts

The Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, announced $1,492,571 in awards to 10 public and affordable housing organizations to help residents access the internet, learn digital skills, and make practical use of online tools in their daily lives.

Gigi Sohn joins Nicole Ferraro to discuss a recent effort by the community of Longmeadow (MA) to construct and launch a town-owned fiber network, until the project was defeated with a town vote rejecting a measure to fund construction.

The Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Massachusetts Broadband Institute announced the distribution of nearly 27,000 internet-enabled devices through the Connected and Online Program to improve quality of life for Massachusetts residents by providing access to essential services and resources online.

T-Mobile has entered into definitive agreements to form two strategic fiber joint ventures (JVs): a 50/50 partnership with Oak Hill Capital to acquire and combine GoNetspeed and Greenlight Networks, and a separate 50/50 joint venture with Wren House to acquire i3 Broadband.

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The Healey-Driscoll Administration and Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s (MassTech) Massachusetts Broadband Institute awarded a combined $7,581,940 to 37 housing organizations in support of digital skills training, device access and other services that help residents secure access to and benefit from the internet.

The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) unveiled a new Infrastructure Progress Dashboard to provide up-to-date information for ongoing broadband infrastructure projects. This dashboard is part of MBI’s effort to achieve increased accessibility and transparency for broadband investments and will record projects funded through the U.S. Treasury Capital Projects Fund (CPF).

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the Department of Commerce announced it is recommending nine applications for award, totaling approximately $6.5 million, under the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program.

The Healey-Driscoll Administration and Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Massachusetts Broadband Institute have awarded $4,457,546 to 61 Massachusetts communities as part of the Municipal Digital Equity Implementation Program. The program helps cities and towns expand internet access, purchase devices, boost digital skills training, and increase community engagement to close the digital divide.

Something remarkable happened in Western Massachusetts in 2018. Over the course of just four months that year, two new municipal fiber networks lit up in tiny towns in the leastdensely populated part of the state. In 2019, three more small towns in the region brought networks online. The next year, seven more communities followed suit. Another seven joined them the following year. Over the course of just four years, 19 towns launched municipal broadband networks, bringing ubiquitous, high-speed Internet access to their communities.