Newsclip

Rural net service boost: Gov to tout $25M plan
By Jay Fitzgerald
Boston Herald General Economics Reporter

Thursday, August 2, 2007

The state would invest about $25 million to help bring high-speed Internet to sparsely populated towns in western Massachusetts under an economic development plan to be unveiled today by Gov. Deval Patrick.

About 32 towns in Massachusetts currently don’t have broadbroad Internet that provides faster and more powerful service. State officials say broadband access is critical to future development in economically hard-pressed areas.

The Patrick administration is planning to create a new “broadband incentive fund,” using public bonds, to pay for towers, Wi-Fi wireless Internet connections and other infrastructure improvements, all designed to encourage private telecom companies to roll out broadband in towns that currently don’t have the service, sources say.

A Patrick spokesman declined to comment about the plan, to be unveiled at a 10:30 a.m. press conference today in Becket, near the New York border. Daniel O’Connell, Patrick’s economic development secretary, and Sharon Gillett, Patrick’s commissioner of telecommunications and cable TV, will be at the event.

Gillett, who could not be reached for comment, is a big proponent of providing wider access to the Internet, arguing it’s essential in order for people and regions to compete.

Gillett, a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge University, has served on a number of boards and commissions focusing on the broadband issue.

The Patrick plan will probably be run through the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasi-public agency established to promote technology in the state, sources say.

Mark Horan, executive director of the Massachusetts Network Communications Council, which represents the telecom industry, said his organization will review the Patrick proposal.

He said some towns aren’t wired for cable and broadband because “the economics of it are difficult” in sparsely populated areas. Towns without broadbandhave to rely on slower, less powerful dial-up connections to access the Web.

Some in the industry will have reservations about the government getting involved in the business, while others will welcome the the Patrick move, Horan said.

“We’ll keep an open mind,” he said.