Facing Mid-2013 Deadline, Network Builder Signs Lease Connecting Broadband from Western MA To Boston

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The entity charged with bringing high speed internet access to 120 underserved communities in western and north-central Massachusetts says it has leased space on a fiber-optic cable network to connect its network to Boston, the region's major internet hub. The 25 year, $2.1million agreement is the latest step by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute to have the entire state internet access-ready by the middle of 2013.
The Massachusetts Broadband Institute, which oversees the proposed high speed network called Mass Broadband 123, is leasing two fiber-optic paths from Lightower Fiber Networks, a Boxborough-based company whose 6,400 mile network extends across New England westward to eastern New York state, and southward to New York City, Long Island and New Jersey. Judy Dumont, director of the Mass Broadband Institute, says the agreement should be a boon to potential service providers, who have balked at what she calls the high costs of doing business in western Massachusetts.
“Now, with us leasing this fiber and offering it to the service providers at affordable rates, we've already seen quite a bit of interest and people saying “Oh, now I can afford to come and open a business and serve residents and businesses in the region”.”
Meanwhile, Dumont says, work is progressing elsewhere in completing the network by next year's deadline, including attaching fiber-optic cable to more than 30,000 utility poles in the project's service area. She says crews also will begin installing equipment this month at about 1,300 so-called community anchor institutions like schools, town halls and public safety buildings that form the network's backbone. And Dumont says final testing is underway on the 55 mile-long network connection built along the Interstate-91 corridor from Longmeadow to the Vermont border. She says that connection is targeted to come online next month.