Massachusetts, Ohio Announce Broadband Initiatives

While many parts of the country are looking for innovative means to increase the number of citizens and businesses connected to high-speed Internet in both urban and rural areas, two governors recently announced initiatives targeting the further extension of broadband services throughout their states.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared the commonwealth would invest $25 million into a new “broadband incentive fund” to be managed by a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), named the Broadband Institute. Under the plan, private companies will compete for funds to install equipment such as network fiber and wireless towers in rural areas that currently do not have broadband. According to the MTC, 32 towns in Massachusetts lack broadband access and 63 municipalities only have broadband in a limited area. The program’s goal is to make broadband available to all communities by 2010.

Ohio’s recent moves have targeted the expansion of broadband delivery to multiple stakeholders, including state and local government. Gov. Ted Strickland signed an executive order that extends and strengthens the state’s broadband network to all of Ohio’s counties and creates an organization to oversee future high-speed internet development.

The order directs some of the available bandwidth from the 1,850-mile, 10-gigabit Ohio Supercomputer Center Network (OSCnet) to a new entity named the Next Generation Network. This entity will be dedicated to the consolidation of service delivery and improved connectivity for state and local government, county and city network rings, public safety, the courts system, underserved populations, and additional public/private initiatives. OSCnet will concentrate exclusively on computing and connectivity resources for Ohio colleges and universities, small- and medium-sized companies, K-12 schools, hospitals, public broadcasting stations, and local, state and federal research centers. Together, the two networks will be administered as the Broadband Ohio Network.

The newly formed Ohio Broadband Council will be responsible for efforts to extend the Broadband Ohio Network to all of the state’s 88 counties. Additionally, the council is expected to coordinate future broadband programs funded by the state, to pursue federal investments in broadband, to address the digital divide in the state’s rural and urban areas, and to promote both public and private broadband initiatives. The council's website is http://www.ohiobroadbandcouncil.org/.

Gov. Patrick’s Broadband Incentive Fund is a component his $12 billion, five-year capital investment program released Monday. The details of the program can be accessed at:
http://www.mass.gov/Eeoaf/docs/fy08_capital_budget.pdf