Momentum continues to build. In order to join WiredWest, 45 towns unserved or underserved by broadband are being asked to vote on their participation at 2010 town meetings. Over the past three weeks, all 23 town meetings addressing the issue have passed the article – all but one town unanimously – and The Egremont Selectboard has also chosen to join. There are 21 more town meetings that will also be voting over the next five weeks.
According to Scott Jenssen, Chair of the Monterey Selectboard, “The WiredWest initiative would be game-changing – not only for each town and its citizens, but for the region as a whole.” Monterey, whose citizens have DSL service in about a third of the town, passed the WiredWest article unanimously at their meeting on May 1st.
“Many people – particularly those without high-speed internet access – understand the urgency of taking action on this issue,” said David Greenberg, Chair of the WiredWest Steering Committee, “but we are conducting outreach, including public information sessions to educate citizens about the impact of a fiber-optic network to the future prospects of the region, and importance of moving this concept forward.”
Fiber-optic is the fastest telecommunication technology available, capable of handling vast amounts of data at a rate hundreds of times faster than typical technologies like DSL, wireless or cable. Fiber connectivity has the added benefit of being easily scalable to offer more bandwidth capacity as end-point equipment evolves. Sufficient capacity is becoming an issue as bandwidth usage in the U.S. doubles every two years, as more business and personal activity is conducted online.
Recent research by the Fiber-to-the-Home Council shows that a fiber-optic network is directly tied to the economic development of a region, including attraction of new businesses, greater business productivity, ease of employment expansion, more home businesses, and higher mid-week populations for vacation areas.
In addition, a fiber network would enable improvements in delivery, and cost savings in education, healthcare, government services and public safety.
Representatives from towns that opt to participate will form the initial governing board of WiredWest. Once all towns have had the opportunity to vote, the first meeting of the organization will be convened and pressing issues of governance and inter-municipal agreements will be addressed. We anticipate that meeting will occur at the end of June.