Towns ask state to improve reliability of ‘middle mile’ internet network
Published: 4/22/2021 10:41:25 AM
Citing recent problems, leaders of more than a dozen publicly owned broadband systems are asking a state tech agency to make the “middle mile” network more reliable, preventing service gaps that leave people in rural areas without phones as well as internet access.
The state, in response, says towns are in a position to find solutions as well, by working with the network’s operator and their internet service provider.
“It’s going to take some money and some time, we acknowledge that,” Jim Drawe of Cummington, executive director of WiredWest, wrote in a letter this week to Carolyn Kirk, executive director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. WiredWest represents towns that used state money, and some of their own, to build fiber networks.