33 Towns Have Officially Joined Discussions with 13 More to Vote

In order to join WiredWest, 46 towns unserved or underserved by broadband are being asked to vote on their participation at 2010 town meetings. Over the past month, all towns addressing the issue have passed the article at town meetings – and The Egremont Selectboard has also chosen to join. There are 13 more town meetings that will also be voting over the next month. For status of your town, please see the map of participating towns.

Representatives from towns that opt to participate will form the initial governing board of WiredWest. Once all towns have had the opportunity to vote, the first meeting of the organization will be convened and pressing issues of governance and inter-municipal agreements will be addressed. We anticipate that meeting will occur at the end of June.

WiredWest Testifies to Regionalization Advisory Commission

On May 4^th, the Chair of the WiredWest Steering Committee had the opportunity to testify to the State’s Regionalization Advisory Commission (RAC), which is tasked with studying a range of opportunities, benefits and challenges of regionalizing local government services.

Please see our written statement here, which summarizes the WiredWest organization and efforts to date. We hope the RAC initiative serves to both streamline efforts and leverage state resources to benefit critical regional projects like WiredWest.

Upcoming Town Information Sessions and Town Meetings

There are two upcoming information sessions:

Wendell: Mon. May 24th, 7pm @ Wendell Library
New Salem: Wed. May 26^th, 7pm @ Town Hall

Remember anyone is welcome to attend the info sessions, whether it’s in your town or not.

Also – please be sure to attend and support the WiredWest article at your annual town meeting. The following meetings are coming up over the next month:

May 18th: Otis, New Ashford
May 19th: Hinsdale
May 25^th: Charlemont
June 1^st: Wendell
June 5^th: Peru
June 7^th: Huntington, New Salem (Part 1)
June 8^th: Lanesboro, New Salem (Part 2)
June 18^th: Florida
June 21^st: New Marlborough, Windsor

About WiredWest

WiredWest’s mission is to build and operate a universal, open-access, fiber-to-the-home network that is financially self-sustaining and municipally-owned, We believe this type of network would fundamentally improve the prospects for our communities, ensuring they remain diverse, vibrant and prosperous today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future. To find out more about the WiredWest project, please see About Us, FAQ, and Project Overview.

How You Can Help

There are a number of ways you can help the WiredWest initiative to succeed, starting with spreading the word! Check here for specific ways you can support the project

www.wired-west.net

Wired West Town Vote Progress: 22 Towns and Counting

Momentum continues to build. In order to join WiredWest, 45 towns unserved or underserved by broadband are being asked to vote on their participation at 2010 town meetings. Over the past three weeks, all 23 town meetings addressing the issue have passed the article – all but one town unanimously – and The Egremont Selectboard has also chosen to join. There are 21 more town meetings that will also be voting over the next five weeks.

According to Scott Jenssen, Chair of the Monterey Selectboard, “The WiredWest initiative would be game-changing – not only for each town and its citizens, but for the region as a whole.” Monterey, whose citizens have DSL service in about a third of the town, passed the WiredWest article unanimously at their meeting on May 1^st.

“Many people – particularly those without high-speed internet access – understand the urgency of taking action on this issue,” said David Greenberg, Chair of the WiredWest Steering Committee, “but we are conducting outreach, including public information sessions to educate citizens about the impact of a fiber-optic network to the future prospects of the region, and importance of moving this concept forward.”

Fiber-optic is the fastest telecommunication technology available, capable of handling vast amounts of data at a rate hundreds of times faster than typical technologies like DSL, wireless or cable. Fiber connectivity has the added benefit of being easily scalable to offer more bandwidth capacity as end-point equipment evolves. Sufficient capacity is becoming an issue as bandwidth usage in the U.S. doubles every two years, as more business and personal activity is conducted online.

Recent research by the Fiber-to-the-Home Council shows that a fiber-optic network is directly tied to the economic development of a region, including attraction of new businesses, greater business productivity, ease of employment expansion, more home businesses, and higher mid-week populations for vacation areas.

In addition, a fiber network would enable improvements in delivery, and cost savings in education, healthcare, government services and public safety.

Representatives from towns that opt to participate will form the initial governing board of WiredWest. Once all towns have had the opportunity to vote, the first meeting of the organization will be convened and pressing issues of governance and inter-municipal agreements will be addressed. We anticipate that meeting will occur at the end of June.