Fifteen years ago, Western Massachusetts residents in the small hill towns that dotted the most rural parts of the state were faced with an increasingly stark choice. To stay where they and their family had always lived, they had to accept that they would always have second-class broadband service. The full breadth and depth of the Internet would probably be inaccessible to them, because the monopoly Internet Service Providers (ISPs) decided that even though there was profit to be had in the region, it wasn’t enough to upgrade or expand those networks. Or, residents could move east, where new investment was happening but where they would have to start over.
Instead, they charted a third path. Over the course of a decade, towns came together, building a grassroots movement. Leading the charge was a cadre of champions that drove thousands of miles, held hundreds of meetings, and inspired dozens of voting campaigns to partner together and build their own broadband networks. Such was the weight of their determination that the state’s will was bent their way. Between 2018 and 2022, 19 very small towns built fiber-to-the-home (ftth) networks and transformed their telecommunications future forever. And the special nature of that change comes in no small part because of the public partnerships that have been established, both among themselves and with neighboring community Westfield – itself a municipal provider who today operates these new networks on behalf of the communities.
Seeking the Commonwealth of Connection: How Small-Town Volunteers and Public Partnerships Transformed Internet Access in Western Massachusetts [pdf] tells the story of how this came to be, and the impact it is had for residents, businesses, and community anchor institutions in the region. The 8,000 people who live there pay less for their broadband service than those living in most major metro areas around the country, and know their customer service representatives by name. The real estate market has gotten a boost, not only keeping people of all ages in the areas, but bringing in working professionals from New York City and transforming local business’ ability to process credit card transactions and stay competitive. Internet service outages are measured in minutes or hours instead of days. And the money they pay for that service stays in their communities, helping them plan for the future and build new revenue streams to further improve the lives of their citizens.
Public-public partnerships like these not only bring direct benefits to communities, but they strengthen the ties within and between them. Far-flung neighbors are more likely to know each other by name. The stacking effects of the gains will be felt for generations.
There is a lot of pride and satisfaction that we were able to build it ourselves, and that it’s run by a local entity.”
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