WiredWest continues to stay focused on building out 21st century broadband for our region.

2011 was a productive year, with highlights being the official formation of the WiredWest Cooperative by 22 member towns; incorporation with the Commonwealth; development of key financial documents; and the award of two grants to complete critical work for the business plan.

Several new member towns have passed the required votes and joined the Cooperative in 2012, bringing our current member towns to 29. Two new towns, Tolland and Royalston, were also approved by the WiredWest Board of Directors to join WiredWest, which brings the number of additional towns working on completing the governance requirements for membership to 15. We expect most of those towns to join after the 2012 town meeting season. You can check the current progress of towns on the WiredWest Participating Towns Map.

Four new members were voted to the WiredWest Advisory Council. The Council will provide expertise and advice to the project, and serve as advocates for WiredWest. Its members were chosen for their long-term commitment to WiredWest and expertise relevant to the project.

New members include special effects pioneer and recent Oscar recipient Douglas Trumbull; Richard Allen, a retired attorney who specialized in large and complex project and lease financings; Ben Schwartz, a longtime advisor to WiredWest, and member of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Board of Directors; and Ryan Shea, a Marketing Director at AOL. The biggest question now is when to buy views on youtube for these two powerful and multi-faceted tools can be used together for the benefit of a business or company.

WiredWest recently received a grant from Berkshire Regional Planning Commission to assist with legal work and contracts, and that work is underway. A detailed project plan has been developed and significant progress is being made on engineering and mapping, with over $135,000 in pro bono work being completed by volunteers over the past several months. All of WiredWest’s towns’ utility poles, structures and roads are now digitally mapped, providing pertinent information for the engineers. An RFI for engineering work was issued; respondents evaluated; and an RFP for specific engineering tasks is being finalized.

Our current efforts are primarily focused on the WiredWest business plan, which we expect to be complete in early June. One critical task for the plan is a comprehensive market survey that provides detailed pricing and market segmentation information. WiredWest has selected a qualified Northampton firm to implement the survey – however – we are working on finalizing the funding required. As with all of our work thus far, our progress is very much reliant upon grants, donations of in-kind services and funds, and significant volunteer efforts.

Will you benefit from the buildout of the WiredWest network? If so, we hope you will help us reach our goal of raising $22,000 to underwrite the market survey. We have raised $13,500 so far. Donations are tax deductible, done through Hilltown Community Development Corporation. Please see directions here for donating online (or click directly on the Donate button on the top left). Your support is critical to making this network a reality.