Advocates for a public, high-speed municipal network for Northampton Massachusetts
Last Thursday, the Northampton City Council approved Fiscal Year 2020 funding (which starts July 1, 2019) for the city’s departments, including the city’s IT Services Department. That department will presumably be overseeing the study of a municipal network for Northampton. This does not mean that the study’s funding is now approved by the City Council. …
The Northampton City Council is in the midst of debating the city’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget, which starts July 1. Part one was last night. Part two is tonight. The budget is comprehensive, so it includes funding for all the city’s departments and initiatives. The City Council can remove any proposed funding in the budget …
Back in March, we provided an idea of the costs for businesses in Northampton to get high-speed Internet service from what is pretty much our sole supplier: Comcast. Now we have more details, thanks to coalition member Ryan. Ryan has spent a lot of time on the phone with Comcast trying to quantify these rates. …
We met for the first time in a couple of months yesterday. We tried hard to find a public space, but failed. If you have some public space we can use please email us. We’re looking for something like a conference room with an overhead projector that can hold a couple of dozen people, available …
In our last post, we posted that the town of Plainfield, Massachusetts, population under 1000, approved the construction of a municipal network. It should be finished in early 2020. Residents will have 1 gigabit per second fiber to the home for $85/month. There are also business plans, ranging from $100 to $800 per month depending …
The 53 of the 472 voters in Plainfield who showed up for the town’s annual meeting approved funding for a municipal network for the town. Service will start in early 2020 and will be provided and constructed by Whip City Fiber, the Municipal Light Plant for the City of Westfield. $149,876 in funding was approved …
Hanuman Goleman of Florence has thrown his hat into the Ward 7 council race. Ward 7 is located in Leeds and parts of Florence. In an interview with the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Goleman indicated he supports municipal broadband in Northampton. Goleman has plenty of company. The other candidates Penny Geis and Rachel Maiore also support …
Monday, the Northampton High-speed Community Network Coalition completed a business survey for members of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce. Soon to be retired executive director Suzanne Beck has promised that she will send the survey out to her membership. This survey is not a city-sponsored survey, but it will give early insight into the …
From masslive.com: For the past 18 months, SHELD has been “gearing up” and planning for the residential component. “We’re launching fiber right now. We’re constructing into what we call “Fiberhood” areas,” he said, “which will roughly serve 250 to 300 customers.” Fitzgerald expects the first two neighborhoods will have gigabit-speed internet by July. He added …
Penny Geis of Leeds announced her candidacy for the Ward 7 city councilor seat being vacated by Alisa Klein. Penny is a prominent member of our coalition and supports a community network. Geis supports municipal broadband, and she is an active member of the Northampton High-Speed Community Network Coalition. “It is a really critical infrastructure …