Advocates for a public, high-speed municipal network for Northampton Massachusetts
(Easy link for sharing this page: https://tinyurl.com/northamptonquestion1) In about five weeks, Northampton voters will have the chance to vote Yes or No on allowing the city of Northampton to create a Municipal Light Plant (MLP). It’s a bit confusing, but the way for a municipality to create a network to provide Internet service is to first create an MLP. To learn more about why we think a municipal …
If you missed our interview on WHMP on Saturday it’s available online for streaming. The recording is about 45 minutes long. Many people received their city surveys. Look for it addressed to “resident”. A business reply envelope is included with the survey, as well as a link to the survey. You can take it now …
Mark Hamill and Lee Feldscher, founding members of the Northampton High-speed Community Network Coalition, were interviewed today for WHMP’s PANORAMA show. The show runs on Saturday from 7 AM to 8 AM. They are scheduled to be broadcast this Saturday at this time. Hosts Stephan-Ward Wheten and Dan Torres interviewed Mark and Lee. The discussion …
With so many people working from home or just home due to the coronavirus pandemic, Internet service providers have been affected. This New York Times story discusses some of the impact it is having slowing Internet service to the home as network demand skyrockets. It’s affecting people in Northampton too. One on our coalition noticed …
Mayor David Narkewicz’s capital plan calls for two studies. The first study would survey the community to determine if enough residents and businesses would subscribe to a municipal network. Money was approved by the City Council in July for this study. After our last post, we did hear from the city’s Chief Information Officer, Antonio …
In July, our coalition was invited by Mayor Narkewicz to help refine a RFP (Request for Proposal) to study the viability of a municipal network for the city. This was shortly after the City Council approved funding for this first study, which is to survey the community. We traded a few emails with Antonio Pagan, …
Our coalition feels that if built, a Northampton municipal network should protect the privacy of those using it. Users should have confidence that the city won’t be tracking what they are doing online. If you use Comcast Xfinity, they are tracking your usage of the Internet. It has a pretty good idea of your interests, …
Our coalition met Wednesday with Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz and Antonio Pagan, the city’s Chief Information Officer. The Mayor confirmed that he wants the coalition to help draft an RFP (Request for Proposal) that the city will use for the first phase of the study for a municipal network. The first phase will study the …
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 …