Advocates for a public, high-speed community network for Northampton Massachusetts
Jeff Christensen and his company, EntryPoint Networks, is helping communities create entrances to the Internet using municipal networks that are open to ALL service providers. This approach dramatically reduces costs, empowers ownership of networks by subscribers and allows multiple service providers to compete for your business over a shared community platform. Jeff has already met …
Shutesbury, Massachusetts is still stuck in dialup/DSL-land. Comcast long ago decided it wasn’t profitable to wire up the town. But this is changing as the town wires up, thanks in part to the commonwealth’s Wired West initiative. In March 2017, the town voted to create a Municipal Light Plant for the purpose of bringing a …
Both Plainfield and Worthington in the hilltowns have been passed over by the internet age. Internet connectivity required dialup modems over telephone lines … so 1990s and sizzling speeds up to 56 kilobits per second. DSL lines are also an option at 128k kilobits per second to 3 megabits per second, depending on how far …
Many of us living in Northampton are outraged by the prices Comcast charges for high-speed Internet access. Not only are their most popular plans like the “up to” 15mbps (megabits per second) not really high speed anymore, they are pricey. The 15mbps service costs $49.95/month as of this writing. Still, whether paying $49.95/month to Comcast …
Last night, the Northampton City Council gave final approval to the mayor’s capital plan for FY20 – FY25. The plan includes funding for a study of a municipal network for Northampton in FY20 and FY21. City Council Chairman Ryan O’Donnell noted before the vote that approving the plan does not obligate the city council to …
We missed this editorial in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on March 2nd. The Gazette is all for Northampton and Easthampton’s efforts to create municipal (community) networks. Read the whole thing! It’s nice they called out our coalition and petition network in particular. Thanks to everyone for doing your part, even if it was just signing …
This Thursday, there will be another opportunity Thursday to tell the Northampton City Council and the mayor that you want a community network! On February 21, the city council approved in concept the mayor’s capital plan which includes funding for a study of a community network. This Thursday at their 7 PM meeting in the …
This TED Talk by Jeff Christensen is good and worth thirteen minutes of your time. The idea of citizens becoming owners of their data networks instead of renters is one of this coalition’s key ideas too. It would not surprise us if in twenty years ISPs like Comcast are no longer here. ISPs like Comcast …
The Daily Hampshire Gazette today has a front page story on the City Council’s approval in concept of a study of municipal broadband for Northampton. This is bundled in the mayor’s capital plan starting in fiscal year 2020. A final vote by the City Council will take place on March 7th and our coalition will …
Note: This post was updated to note the City Council’s approval was in concept. Last night, the Northampton City Council approved in concept funding for a study of a Northampton municipal network. The issue was discussed as part of Mayor Narkewicz’s capital fund plan, which was presented to the Council last night. By approving the …