Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick lit the first section of the MassBroadband 123 fiber-optic network, a 1,200-mile network that will bring fast Internet access to under-served communities across central and western Massachusetts, according to an April 3 press release.
“Today is a remarkable milestone because now every corner of the Commonwealth will be connected to the educational and economic opportunities everywhere else in the world,” Patrick said in the release.
The MassBroadband 123 network will serve approximately 1,200 public facilities in 120 communities, including libraries, schools, town halls and public safety and health care facilities.
The 1,200 facilities, or Community Anchor Institutions, will be provided with a much speedier fiber-optic infrastructure.
According to the press release, this will benefit local communities by providing better content-streaming bandwidth to schools, video-conferencing hubs that will help narrow the digital divide for the elderly and disabled, and fast access to the criminal information database for police forces region-wide.
Jason Whittet, deputy director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, said the network cost $85 million to produce. It will be maintained by Axia NGNetworks USA, he said.
“If you think of the Internet as a network of networks, that network was missing in western Massachusetts,” Whittet said. “We came in and built the foundation so all of western Mass. has as robust a telecommunications network as you can get anywhere in the world.”
The connections running into Anchor Institutions are capable of handling gigabit connections, not unlike the recent Google Fiber network introduced to Kansas City, Mo. in July, Whittet said.
“The fiber-optic network takes a significant chunk out of Internet providers setup costs,” he said. “That’s dramatically increasing the number of providers in the region, as well as making it less expensive to get services.”
Whittet said he foresees a high adoption rate among residents.
“I think about half of [the 1,200] Anchor Institutions will be signing up for it, maybe more,” he said.
Jason Lefferts, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development said the Patrick-Murray administration was committed to the project, having recognized the importance of reliable high-speed Internet access.
“By improving and expanding our infrastructure, we are creating new economic opportunity for everyone in the Commonwealth, including businesses and residents in communities that previously were unable to rely on a strong Internet connection,” Lefferts said.
The first lit section of the MassBroadband network stretches from Springfield to Sandisfield, and the rest will be lit in the coming months, according to the press release.
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