Western Mass Municipal Officials Hold Broadband Forum
Photo: picpedia.org. Creative Commons
A virtual forum was held recently by Western Mass. municipal officials to discuss the challenges facing municipal broadband. The meeting was attended by town and city officials from Springfield, Holyoke, West Springfield, Agawam, and Northampton.
The forum was co-hosted by Jessie Lederman(At-Large City Councilor, Springfield) and Rebecca Lisi (At-Large City Councilor, Holyoke). Joining them were municipal providers of broadband fiber from South Hadley Light and Power as well as Whip City Fiber/Westfield Gas and Electric. Timothy Paul, from OmniPoint Technology, represented T-Mobile’s wireless initiative.
A lively discussion covered many of the typical questions concerning the governmental process leading up to the acceptance and implementation of municipal broad- band. The forum’s intention was to help the public understand broadband in the Valley, the question of whether it should be considered a utility, and how various municipalities here have dealt with it, and how in the future they might work collectively.
Amherst Media will post a recording of this forum soon (check Channel 12 scheduling on https://amherstmedia.org/).
Jim Lescault is Executive Director of Amherst Media