A common question that often arises — especially among Select Board members or residents who follow the news about broadband — is “what about that $40 million from the state for broadband?”

In late 2008 the state passed a $40 million bond bill establishing the Massachusetts Broadband Institute.

The purpose of the institute shall be to achieve the deployment of affordable and ubiquitous broadband access across the commonwealth. The objectives of the institute shall include: (i) assessing and improving broadband access conditions in communities that have no access or have limited or insufficient access to broadband; (ii) promoting robust broadband access for essential state and local governmental services including, without limitation, public safety, health and education; (iii) promoting increased availability of, and competition for, broadband access and related services; and (iv) creating conditions that will encourage economic competitiveness and growth. The first priority of the institute shall be to assess and improve conditions in the commonwealth’s communities that have no broadband access.

The MBI was established as part of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, located outside of Boston. The MTC is a quasi-public agency that oversees various technology and economic development projects in the state’s interest. Because almost all of the unserved residents (as in no high-speed internet) live in western Massachusetts, our region is the initial focus for the MBI.

The law clearly states that the intention is to “achieve the deployment of affordable and ubiquitous broadband access across the commonwealth”, and the specific actions employed by the MBI are generally intended to be “stimulating”, e.g. “assessing and improving broadband access”, “promoting increased availability … and competition”, “creating conditions that will encourage economic competitiveness and growth.” In particular, MBI has long stated that it will spend its money on “necessary and long-lived infrastructure assets—such as conduits, fiber-optic cable and wireless towers”, but has not indicated its intention of providing actual connectivity to homes.  (That’s our job.)

So far the MBI has invested its money and efforts in the following major activities:

  • The MBI spent about $4.3 million laying fiber optic in conduit along Rt 91.  This will be useful for subsequent connectivity to towns.
  • The MBI received about $2 million of federal aid to perform mapping to assess broadband availability in Massachusetts. Believe it or not, nobody knows exactly who does not have broadband because the internet providers consider it proprietary information.  But WesternMA Connect collects the most comprehensive data. The MBI is contracting with WesternMA Connect on this project, which includes “developing, supporting, … and organizing outreach efforts to engage, inform, and energize residents, businesses, and public officials; and supporting municipalities in making educated decisions on broadband issues impacting their communities.”  The regional government councils are also involved.
  • The MBI along with other state agencies have set aside $26.2 million in matching funds for $45.4 million of federal grants to support a “middle mile” broadband network that would connect so-called anchor institutions (schools, town halls, etc.) with fiber optic cable running through 123 towns. (This grant application is aiming for a piece of the $7.2 billion stimulus fund for broadband.)  WiredWest is very supportive of MBI’s submission.  If MBI’s  network comes to pass, then there will be fiber optic network access within 3 miles of over 98% of residents in western Massachusetts, which will significantly reduce the costs of building a fiber optic network to the home.
  • The MBI spent $5 million on broadband for Cape Cod as matching funds for OpenCape’s successfully awarded $32 million “middle mile” grant from the federal broadband stimulus fund.

So, in short, the MBI holds the strings to $40 million of state funds for broadband.  Some of the money has been spent on improving the state’s network infrastructure, some set aside in hopes of federal money for a regional fiber network, and some is yet to be allocated.  MBI and WiredWest share many of the same values — universal broadband and open access being the two most important.  The MBI is sincerely working to address the broadband problem in Western Mass and their goal is to see the unserved residents in Massachusetts get broadband, so we at WiredWest consider the MBI to be an important partner.

Next time: How much will this all cost?

Have other questions?  Leave a reply to this article.

PS. Town informational meetings and annual town meetings are coming up quickly.  Check our calendar of informational meetings for a meeting near you and be sure to attend your annual town meeting to vote for the article that will give your town a voice in the future of broadband in western Mass.!