Municipal broadband networks are coming to the US

Jul 3, 2015 08:09 GMT  ·  By

WiredWest, a joint venture that aims to bring modern Internet infrastructures to rural communities across Western Massachusetts, has announced official plans to interconnect 22 towns to its own, custom-built broadband service.

Currently, 44 towns have joined the WiredWest initiative, but only 22 have decided to fund this municipal broadband plan, with 10 more also expected to adhere in the coming days.

This group of towns is situated at the halfway distance between the larger Boston (Massachusetts) and Albany (New York) cities, but this hasn't helped its citizens gain access to high-speed Internet connections.

The WiredWest plan aims to provide its local communities with Internet services that are both cheap and of a higher quality compared to what they're currently getting from local ISPs.

According to Engadget, basic Internet packages will be available for $49 / €44 for speeds of 25Mbps. There will be no traffic caps, and better plans will also be available for $79 / €71 and $109 / €98 for speeds of 100Mbps and 1Gbps.

The FCC is backing the WiredWest project

The WiredWest initiative is not the first such effort of this kind, as previously, the town of Chattanooga, Tennessee, also built its own Internet infrastructure in 2010.

What's different from the previous case is that the WiredWest network will span more than one town, an option made possible by the FCC after the Tennessee state government body passed laws to prevent Chattanooga's local network from spreading to other neighboring cities and protect the interests of telecom networks.

In that case, Tom Wheeler, FCC chairman, had to say, "If the people, acting through their elected local governments, want to pursue competitive community broadband, they shouldn't be stopped by state laws promoted by cable and telephone companies that don't want that competition."

What these communities are trying to do is boost the local area's attractiveness to big tech companies, just like in Chattanooga, where Amazon opened new offices soon after the municipal network was installed, and created 400 new jobs.

Currently, WiredWest is not a done deal, only $34.5 / €31 million of the $79 / €71 million necessary being covered in funding until now.