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 [...]
WiredWest has procured the services of Dr. Andrew Cohill, of Design Nine, to work on the first phase of broadband planning. It’s estimated the work will take six months to complete. Cohill is a broadband architect with an international reputation for his work advising large and small communities on technology and broadband issues. In the [...]
All towns have now passed the WiredWest article on their town warrants, and two additional town Selectboards – Egremont and Lanesborough – have also opted to join the discussions around the formation of the WiredWest organization. The total is now 47 towns, which officially convened on June 26th for the inaugural all-town meeting in Cummington. [...]
In order to join WiredWest, 46 towns unserved or underserved by broadband are being asked to vote on their participation at 2010 town meetings. Over the past month, all towns addressing the issue have passed the article at town meetings - and The Egremont Selectboard has also chosen to join. There are 13 more town [...]