This week at Harvard Law, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society sponsored a symposium to introduce municipal fiber network success stories to other municipalities in Massachusetts. Google did kick start a lot of independent effort in our state, most notably South Hadley and Leverret. However, that was their only contribution.
The summary is as follows: The Feds and State built a backbone and middle mile; The laws of Mass. for telecomm are somewhat arcane; here are a list of folks to get you started navigating the politics and technology; the biggest problem is how to fund the infrastructure.
A very large percentage of Mass. towns were bypassed by the incumbents and there are several towns which the incumbents would like to abandon.
Many municipalities are moving forward using general obligation bonds.
The pointer to the handout: cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/broadband
The bottom line, in my opinion, is that the tactics used by the Rural Electrification Act in the early 1900s should be applied here. Estimates abound that suggest a federal stimulus of $150Billion ( a couple F35s ) would hook everybody up with fiber. The incumbents have bent the wording and the laws, most recently in NYC, to take subsidy and not deliver. My town is moving forward, one hurdle at a time and are especially happy to be in a state that allows this.
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They started a movement
The summary is as follows: The Feds and State built a backbone and middle mile; The laws of Mass. for telecomm are somewhat arcane; here are a list of folks to get you started navigating the politics and technology; the biggest problem is how to fund the infrastructure.
A very large percentage of Mass. towns were bypassed by the incumbents and there are several towns which the incumbents would like to abandon.
Many municipalities are moving forward using general obligation bonds.
The pointer to the handout: cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/broadband
The bottom line, in my opinion, is that the tactics used by the Rural Electrification Act in the early 1900s should be applied here. Estimates abound that suggest a federal stimulus of $150Billion ( a couple F35s ) would hook everybody up with fiber. The incumbents have bent the wording and the laws, most recently in NYC, to take subsidy and not deliver. My town is moving forward, one hurdle at a time and are especially happy to be in a state that allows this.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by johnk26.
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