State agency wants $100M

By Tony Dobrowolski
Berkshire Eagle Staff

August 16, 2009

PITTSFIELD -- The Massachusetts Broadband Institute has filed a proposal with the U.S Department of Commerce for $100 million in federal economic stimulus funds to provide high speed Internet service to Western Massachusetts, MBI Director Sharon Gillett said.

The MBI, which is the state’s broadband advocacy group, also filed a second proposal that requests an additional $5 million for statewide broadband mapping. The requests were filed on Friday for the first round of broadband competitive grant programs that are included in the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The federal government has appropriated $7.2 billion through the stimulus program to promote high speed Internet access nationwide. The majority of that funding is expected to be used to increase broadband access in rural unserved and underserved areas.

November deadline

Gillett said the MBI should receive final confirmation on its proposal by mid-November. Two additional rounds of funding are scheduled to take place next year, she said.

"The proposal that we gave to the Department of Commerce is as strong a proposal that we could put together for the unserved and underserved communities," said state Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, whose district includes 48 municipalities in Berkshire, Franklin and Hampshire counties.

In its application, the MBI has proposed building a broadband infrastructure program that would cost $125
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million. Gillett said the state will match the remaining $25 million cost through the $40 million in state bond funds that the MBI has the authority to invest in broadband infrastructure such as conduits, fiber-optic cables and wireless towers. The MBI will also use funds that are slated for public safety and Information Technology.

The MBI’s proposal is for a "middle mile infrastructure project," which Gillett described as a fiber optic ring that would encircle the four counties of Western Massachusetts. The first segment of that ring is a fiber cable system along the Interstate 91 corridor between the Connecticut and Vermont borders, she said.

A circle around the region

"Imagine a ring that goes all around Western Massachusetts and connects Peru or Savoy to Springfield," Gillett said. "This will reduce the cost substantially."

According to Gillett, the federal government has identified 39 communities in the four counties of Western Massachusetts as underserved by broadband access, and four additional municipalities as unserved. The four unserved communities include the Berkshire County towns of Monterey and Savoy.

The MBI had identified nine communities in Western Massachusetts as being unserved by broadband technology, including Alford, Mount Washington, Peru and Tyringham in addition to Savoy. But Gillett said the federal government’s standards are different than the MBI’s. Alford, Mount Washington, Peru and Tyringham are among the 14 Berkshire County communities that are listed as underserved by the federal government.

In July, Gov. Deval L. Patrick announced that $4.3 million in state bond funds would be available to complete the system along the I-91 corridor, which will allow for the buildout of broadband networks to Berkshire County. The I-91 system consists of six-fiber optic conduits. As of July, the final five miles to the Vermont border had yet to be completed.