During a Town Hall meeting last Tuesday, 133 of the town’s 471 registered voters unanimously approved spending $400,000 for the construction of a town-owned broadband network. “We did this to make sure that we can pay the bill the day that construction begins,” said Board Chairman Howard Bronstein. The town is working with Westfield Gas and Electric, which is providing design, engineering, and project management services, to build the network. As planned, the town’s fiber-optic network will provide high-speed Internet and telephone service to every residence and business in town.
Charlemont residents vote in favor of building town-owned broadband network
Charlemont, MA, residents "are supporting a town-owned fiber broadband network proposal, instead of a cheaper offer from Comcast." 56 percent of residents voted in favor of the town building its own municipal broadband network, despite it being about $1 million more expensive than...
Centennial's fiber backbone construction complete
The City of Centennial, CO’s vision to provide dark fiber "with simple terms of access and usage has come to fruition with the completion of FiberWorks, a 432-fiber-strand backbone connecting key city sites and community anchor institutions." More than 50 miles of fiber back...
Charlemont rejects Comcast broadband offer; opts to build $1.4M fiber optic network
Comcast’s $462,123 proposal, which would have connected 96 percent of households in Charlemont, Massachusetts with high-speed internet was rejected by town meeting voters. Instead, Charlemont has decided to build its own fiber optic broadband network. The project funding wou...
Nicasio's fiber optic network goes live
In 2016, the California Public Utilities Commission recommended Inyo Networks, a telecomunications company based in California, to help initiate a project to build Nicasio’s broadband service. The commission also granted to city $1.5 million, 60 percent of the total cost for...
County, town finalize broadband agreement
An agreement between the town and county of Orange allowing the school system’s broadband project to continue through the town’s right-of-way has been finalized. The agreement allows the project’s contractors to work within the town’s right-of-way laying fi...
Government-owned broadband is costly — try these alternatives
According to a 2017 report from the University of Pennsylvania that studied 20 municipal broadband projects in the United States, "only two ‘earned enough to expect to cover their project costs during the useful life of the networks.’" Instead of having the government ...