On a sunny Tuesday morning in Sandisfield, Governor Deval Patrick announced that construction was beginning on the state’s $71.6 million fiber-optic network. This fiber will bring ultra high-speed internet access to anchor institutions in 123 communities in Western Massachusetts and provide high-capacity backhaul for providers interested in building last-mile connections to homes and businesses. Therein [...]
The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) announced yesterday that WiredWest will be a recipient of their award program to advance last-mile broadband solutions. This award will be leveraged with in-kind services and additional funding to complete the planning process for the WiredWest fiber-to-the-premise network in its member towns in 2011 and 2012. According to the Massachusetts [...]
Over the past several weeks, towns across Western Massachusetts have taken steps to join the modern digital world by voting on legislation enabling participation in the WiredWest telecommunications cooperative. Every vote so far has been affirmative, and the tally so far is 19 towns that have finalized the legislation, and 11 that have passed preliminary [...]
Over the past two weeks, votes at several Western Massachusetts town meetings on legislation enabling participation in a regional telecommunications cooperative have passed handily. Nine of WiredWest’s charter towns have now officially passed the legislation, with many more towns voting in the upcoming weeks. Town participation in the WiredWest municipal telecommunications cooperative requires passing two [...]
Hear from local residents, businesspeople, educators, legislators and community leaders about the state of internet connectivity circa 2011 in Western Massachusetts, in this new video. It’s a tale not only of the challenges from lack of adequate access - but also of the possibilities that a state-of-the-art fiber-to-the-home network would bring to the region, in [...]
On February 3rd, Steering Committee members from WiredWest convened in Boston to hear insights from one of America's broadband experts, former Indiana State Senator and Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Graham Richard. During his tenure as Mayor, Richard pushed for Fort Wayne to become the first city in the Midwest wired by Verizon FiOS, which [...]
In September, delegates from WiredWest Charter Towns chose a governance structure to be voted on by individual towns. Governance is critical to formalizing the relationship between participating WiredWest towns and creating a vehicle to capitalize and operate the network that was designed and made by http://www.exposeyourselfusa.com/vehicle-wraps/miami-vehicle-wraps/. The chosen governance structure for the WiredWest organization is [...]
WiredWest is a municipal broadband project that includes 47 towns working together to build and operate a last-mile, fiber-to-the-premises network for Western Massachusetts communities unserved and underserved by high-speed broadband. The WiredWest project covers 1,445 square miles; more than 27,000 households; 3,000 businesses; and dozens of community institutions. WiredWest is proposing a network capable of [...]
WiredWest Steering Committee Members Attend Massachusetts Federal Stimulus Award Ceremony at Greenfield Community College.
Exciting news! Governor Patrick and members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation announced yesterday the Commonwealth has been awarded $45.4 million in federal stimulus funding to expand broadband access. The federal grant funding will be supplemented by $26.2 million in matching funds from the Commonwealth, bringing the total investment in the project to $71.6 million. This [...]