April 25, 2026 • 16 mins
High-speed internet is critical for work, school, shopping, and many other ways we engage in everyday life. While most Massachusetts residents utilize broadband internet connections each and every day, there are still thousands of people who don't have access, both in rural and urban areas. New federal funding is giving Massachusetts the boost it needs to lay the groundwork to get everyone connected. Michael Baldino, the Director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute at MassTech in Westborough, talks with Nichole about the state's efforts to get everyone online and how this new federal funding will help.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
We're each and every week right here. We come together
we talk about all the topics important to you and
the place where you live. Thanks for tuning in again
this week. I'm Nicole Davis. The days of dial up
internet seem to be far behind us at this point.
And look, as somebody who's been on the Internet a
long time, I cannot say that I miss waiting thirty
(00:29):
five minutes for a photo to load. However, for some
residents of Massachusetts, the days of dial up are still
very much here. In fact, there are thousands of people
around the Bay State who do not have access to
broadband Internet. Now these days, having that connection is not
a luxury like it used to be twenty years ago.
In fact, it's critical to find work and go to school,
go shopping, really just engage in every part of life.
(00:51):
While most of Massachusetts is connected, there are still some
parts of the state that are on the other side,
if that's so called digital divide. Some new money is
coming in from a federal grant to help close that gap.
Michael Baldino is the director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute,
and he is here now on the show to tell
us all about it. Before we get into this grant, Michael,
tell us more about the work you're doing over at MBI.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
MBI, we're the Central Broadband Office for the Countwealth of Massachusetts.
We are established in two thousand and eight, and our
mission is broadly to bridge the digital divide in Massachusetts
and so we have over time administered both the state
and federal funds to expand connectivity around the state as
(01:35):
well as address other aspects of the digital divide and
clean making sure people have access to devices and digital
skills training.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Having high speed internet these days it seems to be
more of a necessity because I'm old enough to remember
when it wasn't really even a thing and it was
just like, oh, you got cable internet. This is a
big deal. That is not the case anymore, but there's
still a lot of people who don't have access. Tell
us a little bit about, you know how those people
who don't have access so trying to get around this
and stay connected when everything is digital at this point.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So you're absolutely right on point, I mean, at this,
at this you know, right now, we live in a
digital world and having meaningful access to reliable and affordable
internet service. It's not a luxury, it's a necessity. I mean,
you need to have internet access to unlock. It's you know,
access to better healthcare through telehealth visits with your doctors.
(02:27):
It's access to educational and employment opportunities, access to government services,
staying connected to family and friends, you know, really participation
in all aspects of life. You know, a lot of
that happens online.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now, let's talk here in Massachusetts about our coverage right now,
from what I've seen, we're already at more than ninety
nine percent broadband coverage, which is really impressive, frankly, but
we do still have a few gaps that remain, so
tell us a bit about those gaps and why it's
more complicated to close those.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So. Yes, so we are. We are one of the
most connected states in the nation. And our goal though
is to get to universal access to broadband service that
every home and business in the state has connectivity. And
so we are well on our way. Why we're so
advantageous right now and where we are is that the
(03:17):
state has really been a national leader. So we've already,
before this influx of federal funding, we've invested state funding
to expand connectivity. So starting around ten years ago, there
was a major investment in addressing the needs of rural
communities in western central Massachusetts. So MBI we invested, we
(03:39):
administered grants, we expanded connectivity in fifty three rural towns
across western central Massachusetts and so well, so that just
left us with very small pockets where a lot of
states you have entire communities that are still lacking access.
So really what we have right now are these small
little pockets of you know, of unserved homes and businesses
(04:03):
where it just were the providers it just didn't make
financial sense for them on our own to extend the
infrastructure to reach those homes and businesses. So that's so
now that's what we're doing with our federal funds.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Eighteen and a half million dollars. It's coming from the
Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program otherwise known as BAD
because that's a long name for a program. So when
we're talking about this BAD program, tell us a little
bit about what it offers and what are you going
to do with this money.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
So we're yeah, so we're investing eighteen point eight million
dollars in federal funding under BIAD, which comes under the
Biparson Infrastructure Law. And so we we're going to be
making we're making awards to five providers and through the
and we're going to expand access to two thousand, five
hundred and sixty five homes and businesses as well as
(04:53):
one thy two hundred and forty three community anchor institutions.
And by community and constitutions, we're doing schools, community health centers, libraries,
senior centers, you know of a variety of places where
people gather and get you know, and get critical support
for the communities. We're making sure that all homes and
(05:16):
businesses supports this program have access to high speed Internet,
which the federal government currently defines as having access to
at least one hundred megrates per second download speeds and
twenty megabits per second upload speeds.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
All right, So for people like Layman's terms, you know,
that would be enough to stream Netflix or you know,
do a video call with a friend or something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, for a family that you can have a lot
of people online at the same time that you said,
you can be online gaming, streaming on Netflix, doing you know,
meetings on teams or you know, or you know, things
like that you can be you know, you can be
surfing the net. All that can go on simultaneously.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
That can do wonders for not just social activity, but
economic activity too. People can now take remote jobs they
may not have that access to. Maybe a small business
can make some upgrades. This is like a win win
across the board.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I feel, yeah, we're very excited that we're empowering people
to you know, to really take full advantage of those
opportunities because a lot more people are working remotely and
so you know, and so you need to have access
at home, you need to and and really at this state,
if you need for example, if you need to get
into the workforce, you need to be able to you
(06:29):
need to be able to have a resume, you need
to be able to apply for jobs online, be able
to do online interviews. So really this unlocks all of that,
all those opportunities. And now even for like for education,
it's not only just like you know on you know,
online access to classes, but if you're applying for college,
you need to that that largely takes place on online.
(06:50):
Now you apply for financial aid online, you submit your
applications online, you find out whether you whether you, whether
you admit it or not. Online it's different, different, different
world that I was in college and snow days.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I feel so bad for the kids these days because
I'm of a certain age where, you know, when it snowed, like,
we didn't have internet like that and we had to
actually take a snow day. Kids now don't really get
snow days anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Not as often. Now. I think, yeah, everyone does that
up for remote learning as a result of COVID, and
that was really I mean, that was really a pivot
point where, you know, I think that's I think that
brought awareness to basically, you know, on a much broader basis,
where before I think, you know, people then fully appreciate
how difficult it was for people and families who are
(07:35):
on the wrong side of the digital vibe, And now
I think there is broad awareness and understanding and support front,
you know, for the things we need to make sure
everyone has meaningful access to broadband service.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So then how do you approach getting this access out
to rural or even suburban and even urban areas because
we've got gateway cities where there are still parts of
those cities that are not connected, but infrastructure, you know,
you're in the Berkshires or something, and it might be
a little more complicated to run this infrastructure. Tell us
what the process is like getting all this done.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
So we work primarily through partnerships. We we we've supported
wide variety projects in some cases back to our days
where we funded where we had its state funding. We
both funded projects with you know, your major providers like
Comcast and Charter as well as we supported communities that
(08:27):
wanted to build, own and operate their own, municipally own
broadband network. And so we did over twenty of those projects.
So we recognized there was no one size fits all approach.
We tried to meet communities where they are and so
with our federal funding. So under the so we have
it's not just the bad program. We have other federal
funding that we're building upon. So right now we've already
(08:49):
invested forty five million dollars in federal funding under the
American Rescue Plan Act as it's Capital Projects Funds, and
so we have awards that we're going to be expanding
access to over three thousand, seven hundred homes and businesses,
and those projects are already underway and are going to
be completed by the end of twenty twenty six. And
(09:10):
so really it's the bad funding we're looking to pick
up those remaining locations that we didn't either get with
their state programs or the you know this other federal
program which is the Gap Networks grant program. And again
that that program is we do. It's mostly kind of
partnerships with private providers because they're well positioned to you know,
(09:33):
they're already in a lot of these communities and they
know how to you know, they know how to build
these projects quickly.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
How can people who might be in one of these
underserved areas either get access to this service or what
if they happen to be lower income or on a
fixed income, how does your work help them with that?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
So that's that's that's a great question. So that and
that reflects kind of I think, you know, how we
view the digital divide, which again it's it's making sure
you have the infrastructure that you that you can get
to it, but it's got to be affordable, it's got
to be reliable, and it's got to be meaningful, which
goes to the issue of kind of also like devices,
(10:09):
you know, and and skills training so you can actually
utilize the internet effectively. So we've got some programs that
are directly taking tackling this head on. So one program
that we're really proud of, and we're one of only
two states in the country to be doing this, is
we're we're addressing affordable and public housing properties that have
(10:29):
antiquated internal wiring. So in these so particularly if you
look at like public housing properties, a lot of them
are fifty seventy five years old, and the wiring can't
support even if you have the service going to the building,
the wiring can't actually get you a good high speed signal.
So we're replacing that antiquated wiring with state of the
(10:49):
art fiber and Cat six wiring, and that enables them
to take full advantage of the intery of high speed internet.
And so we're doing We've invested seven little over seven
twenty five million dollars and we're improving wiring for over
thirty five thousand households, low income households scattered across the state.
And if we're not just addressing infrastructure through those programs,
(11:13):
we evencentivized providers and most of them are doing that.
They're participating in this program. They are offering low cost
service to the residents, so they're offering deep discounts, and
in many cases they're also packaging, working with the housing
operators to offer devices, to offer digital skills classes, to
make sure that there are Wi Fi, and community spaces,
(11:35):
to make sure that in some cases're doing things like
computer labs in community rooms. So and then some other
things we're doing is right now, we have our Connected
and Online Program, which is a device distribution program, so
we are distributing over thirty thousand devices across the state.
So we're doing laptops, tablets, as well as kind of
(11:56):
the other things you need like you know, keyboards and
mice and printers and monitors, and so right now we're
distributing those across the state and that builds. Also, we
also have nine digital Equity partnerships that are doing you
know that that are that are working with communities and
organization powering organizations on the front lines again to do
(12:17):
things like, you know, make sure we've got devices out there,
make sure they're you know, doing digital skills training, which
also it is not just it ranges from really basic
skills like how to use computer, how do you you know,
how do you establish an email account, to really targeted support, like,
you know, how do you how do you you know,
(12:38):
how do you prepare for video based telehealth visit?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
What if you're older and you're at home and that's
the only way you can access a doctor easily in
those rural areas. And I just I love the fact
that you're tackling this at so many different angles because
it's necessary. And I think that people joke and say, oh,
millennial tech support or whatever, but it's so much more
than that. People of all ages need to learn these skills.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, and we recognize different you know, different people have
different needs. And so one of the other programs that
we've also run is we have a municipal Digital Equity
and Planning program. So we know that municipalities are really
they do other kinds of plans on a regular basis,
they don't necessarily do digital equity plans. So we helped
over one hundred communities in the state doing digital equity
(13:22):
plan so they could understand what the specific needs are
of their residents. And then we offered implementation grants to
those towns and cities so that they can so that
not only could they identify with the needs were and
what kind of investments they need to make. We help
fund those projects that they actually could see real results
for their communities. So it's not just like a stale
(13:43):
plan that sits on someone's shelf.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, No, it's the investment into those communities. It comes
back to the state overall. It's just continuing to put
in all this energy and time. We are going to
see those results in the coming generations. And you must
be very proud of the Institute of all the work
that's being done.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
One of the things that really is impactful is when
we go out and when we celebrate these projects, when
we go out and we have you know, like a
public housing property that goes online and we can we
go out and we actually have like we hear, We
hear from the residents directly what it means to them.
We do the same thing with other projects, and really
(14:21):
that's what brings it home, is hearing what it means
for people's day to day lives and hearing directly from
them how these investments are really life changing.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Well, then how can people connect with the Broadband Institute,
I guess literally and figuratively and find out more about
this broadband program everything you have to offer, because it
seems like you are just a wealth of opportunity and information.
So where can they find you?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So we have we have a wonderful website at broadband
dot mass tech dot org, okay, and you can find
it about all our programs. We also you also can
get on our mailing list and we do a monthly
newsletter to keep all our to keep all you know,
all the all our stakeholders up to speed on what
we're doing, what's coming up, and any and any of
(15:06):
the programs that we launch, you know, you can go
to a website find out about them, but get on
our mailing list because that's the best way to really
stay up to date and everything happening in you know,
in MBI, in the broadband world with digital equity, and
because there are more programs to come. We are we
are right now. There's still over one hundred twenty million
dollars in federal funding. It's been allocated to Massachusetts under
(15:29):
the bad program that we're not spending on the projects
that we announced back in February and so and yeah,
we're going to hear from the federal goverment very soon
how how how we and every other state can access
that money and so we're gonna be very excited to
be launching to be launching more programs with those funds
as well, So a lot to stay tuned for.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Absolutely well, Michael, thank you so much for all the
work you and everybody over at the Institute are doing
to keep us connected. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
We couldn't do this without all of our partners, all
the people, all the you know, all the all the
all the community organizations that are doing the really hard work.
You know it really it really reflects an all of
government and uh, you know, and again extensive partnership. So
we couldn't we couldn't do without their support.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
We're each and every week right here. We come together
we talk about all the topics important to you and
the place where you live. Thanks for tuning in again
this week. I'm Nicole Davis. The days of dial up
internet seem to be far behind us at this point.
And look, as somebody who's been on the Internet a
long time, I cannot say that I miss waiting thirty
(00:29):
five minutes for a photo to load. However, for some
residents of Massachusetts, the days of dial up are still
very much here. In fact, there are thousands of people
around the Bay State who do not have access to
broadband Internet. Now these days, having that connection is not
a luxury like it used to be twenty years ago.
In fact, it's critical to find work and go to school,
go shopping, really just engage in every part of life.
(00:51):
While most of Massachusetts is connected, there are still some
parts of the state that are on the other side,
if that's so called digital divide. Some new money is
coming in from a federal grant to help close that gap.
Michael Baldino is the director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute,
and he is here now on the show to tell
us all about it. Before we get into this grant, Michael,
tell us more about the work you're doing over at MBI.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
MBI, we're the Central Broadband Office for the Countwealth of Massachusetts.
We are established in two thousand and eight, and our
mission is broadly to bridge the digital divide in Massachusetts
and so we have over time administered both the state
and federal funds to expand connectivity around the state as
(01:35):
well as address other aspects of the digital divide and
clean making sure people have access to devices and digital
skills training.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Having high speed internet these days it seems to be
more of a necessity because I'm old enough to remember
when it wasn't really even a thing and it was
just like, oh, you got cable internet. This is a
big deal. That is not the case anymore, but there's
still a lot of people who don't have access. Tell
us a little bit about, you know how those people
who don't have access so trying to get around this
and stay connected when everything is digital at this point.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So you're absolutely right on point, I mean, at this,
at this you know, right now, we live in a
digital world and having meaningful access to reliable and affordable
internet service. It's not a luxury, it's a necessity. I mean,
you need to have internet access to unlock. It's you know,
access to better healthcare through telehealth visits with your doctors.
(02:27):
It's access to educational and employment opportunities, access to government services,
staying connected to family and friends, you know, really participation
in all aspects of life. You know, a lot of
that happens online.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now, let's talk here in Massachusetts about our coverage right now,
from what I've seen, we're already at more than ninety
nine percent broadband coverage, which is really impressive, frankly, but
we do still have a few gaps that remain, so
tell us a bit about those gaps and why it's
more complicated to close those.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So. Yes, so we are. We are one of the
most connected states in the nation. And our goal though
is to get to universal access to broadband service that
every home and business in the state has connectivity. And
so we are well on our way. Why we're so
advantageous right now and where we are is that the
(03:17):
state has really been a national leader. So we've already,
before this influx of federal funding, we've invested state funding
to expand connectivity. So starting around ten years ago, there
was a major investment in addressing the needs of rural
communities in western central Massachusetts. So MBI we invested, we
(03:39):
administered grants, we expanded connectivity in fifty three rural towns
across western central Massachusetts and so well, so that just
left us with very small pockets where a lot of
states you have entire communities that are still lacking access.
So really what we have right now are these small
little pockets of you know, of unserved homes and businesses
(04:03):
where it just were the providers it just didn't make
financial sense for them on our own to extend the
infrastructure to reach those homes and businesses. So that's so
now that's what we're doing with our federal funds.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Eighteen and a half million dollars. It's coming from the
Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program otherwise known as BAD
because that's a long name for a program. So when
we're talking about this BAD program, tell us a little
bit about what it offers and what are you going
to do with this money.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
So we're yeah, so we're investing eighteen point eight million
dollars in federal funding under BIAD, which comes under the
Biparson Infrastructure Law. And so we we're going to be
making we're making awards to five providers and through the
and we're going to expand access to two thousand, five
hundred and sixty five homes and businesses as well as
(04:53):
one thy two hundred and forty three community anchor institutions.
And by community and constitutions, we're doing schools, community health centers, libraries,
senior centers, you know of a variety of places where
people gather and get you know, and get critical support
for the communities. We're making sure that all homes and
(05:16):
businesses supports this program have access to high speed Internet,
which the federal government currently defines as having access to
at least one hundred megrates per second download speeds and
twenty megabits per second upload speeds.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
All right, So for people like Layman's terms, you know,
that would be enough to stream Netflix or you know,
do a video call with a friend or something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, for a family that you can have a lot
of people online at the same time that you said,
you can be online gaming, streaming on Netflix, doing you know,
meetings on teams or you know, or you know, things
like that you can be you know, you can be
surfing the net. All that can go on simultaneously.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
That can do wonders for not just social activity, but
economic activity too. People can now take remote jobs they
may not have that access to. Maybe a small business
can make some upgrades. This is like a win win
across the board.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I feel, yeah, we're very excited that we're empowering people
to you know, to really take full advantage of those
opportunities because a lot more people are working remotely and
so you know, and so you need to have access
at home, you need to and and really at this state,
if you need for example, if you need to get
into the workforce, you need to be able to you
(06:29):
need to be able to have a resume, you need
to be able to apply for jobs online, be able
to do online interviews. So really this unlocks all of that,
all those opportunities. And now even for like for education,
it's not only just like you know on you know,
online access to classes, but if you're applying for college,
you need to that that largely takes place on online.
(06:50):
Now you apply for financial aid online, you submit your
applications online, you find out whether you whether you, whether
you admit it or not. Online it's different, different, different
world that I was in college and snow days.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I feel so bad for the kids these days because
I'm of a certain age where, you know, when it snowed, like,
we didn't have internet like that and we had to
actually take a snow day. Kids now don't really get
snow days anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Not as often. Now. I think, yeah, everyone does that
up for remote learning as a result of COVID, and
that was really I mean, that was really a pivot
point where, you know, I think that's I think that
brought awareness to basically, you know, on a much broader basis,
where before I think, you know, people then fully appreciate
how difficult it was for people and families who are
(07:35):
on the wrong side of the digital vibe, And now
I think there is broad awareness and understanding and support front,
you know, for the things we need to make sure
everyone has meaningful access to broadband service.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So then how do you approach getting this access out
to rural or even suburban and even urban areas because
we've got gateway cities where there are still parts of
those cities that are not connected, but infrastructure, you know,
you're in the Berkshires or something, and it might be
a little more complicated to run this infrastructure. Tell us
what the process is like getting all this done.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
So we work primarily through partnerships. We we we've supported
wide variety projects in some cases back to our days
where we funded where we had its state funding. We
both funded projects with you know, your major providers like
Comcast and Charter as well as we supported communities that
(08:27):
wanted to build, own and operate their own, municipally own
broadband network. And so we did over twenty of those projects.
So we recognized there was no one size fits all approach.
We tried to meet communities where they are and so
with our federal funding. So under the so we have
it's not just the bad program. We have other federal
funding that we're building upon. So right now we've already
(08:49):
invested forty five million dollars in federal funding under the
American Rescue Plan Act as it's Capital Projects Funds, and
so we have awards that we're going to be expanding
access to over three thousand, seven hundred homes and businesses,
and those projects are already underway and are going to
be completed by the end of twenty twenty six. And
(09:10):
so really it's the bad funding we're looking to pick
up those remaining locations that we didn't either get with
their state programs or the you know this other federal
program which is the Gap Networks grant program. And again
that that program is we do. It's mostly kind of
partnerships with private providers because they're well positioned to you know,
(09:33):
they're already in a lot of these communities and they
know how to you know, they know how to build
these projects quickly.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
How can people who might be in one of these
underserved areas either get access to this service or what
if they happen to be lower income or on a
fixed income, how does your work help them with that?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
So that's that's that's a great question. So that and
that reflects kind of I think, you know, how we
view the digital divide, which again it's it's making sure
you have the infrastructure that you that you can get
to it, but it's got to be affordable, it's got
to be reliable, and it's got to be meaningful, which
goes to the issue of kind of also like devices,
(10:09):
you know, and and skills training so you can actually
utilize the internet effectively. So we've got some programs that
are directly taking tackling this head on. So one program
that we're really proud of, and we're one of only
two states in the country to be doing this, is
we're we're addressing affordable and public housing properties that have
(10:29):
antiquated internal wiring. So in these so particularly if you
look at like public housing properties, a lot of them
are fifty seventy five years old, and the wiring can't
support even if you have the service going to the building,
the wiring can't actually get you a good high speed signal.
So we're replacing that antiquated wiring with state of the
(10:49):
art fiber and Cat six wiring, and that enables them
to take full advantage of the intery of high speed internet.
And so we're doing We've invested seven little over seven
twenty five million dollars and we're improving wiring for over
thirty five thousand households, low income households scattered across the state.
And if we're not just addressing infrastructure through those programs,
(11:13):
we evencentivized providers and most of them are doing that.
They're participating in this program. They are offering low cost
service to the residents, so they're offering deep discounts, and
in many cases they're also packaging, working with the housing
operators to offer devices, to offer digital skills classes, to
make sure that there are Wi Fi, and community spaces,
(11:35):
to make sure that in some cases're doing things like
computer labs in community rooms. So and then some other
things we're doing is right now, we have our Connected
and Online Program, which is a device distribution program, so
we are distributing over thirty thousand devices across the state.
So we're doing laptops, tablets, as well as kind of
(11:56):
the other things you need like you know, keyboards and
mice and printers and monitors, and so right now we're
distributing those across the state and that builds. Also, we
also have nine digital Equity partnerships that are doing you
know that that are that are working with communities and
organization powering organizations on the front lines again to do
(12:17):
things like, you know, make sure we've got devices out there,
make sure they're you know, doing digital skills training, which
also it is not just it ranges from really basic
skills like how to use computer, how do you you know,
how do you establish an email account, to really targeted support, like,
you know, how do you how do you you know,
(12:38):
how do you prepare for video based telehealth visit?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
What if you're older and you're at home and that's
the only way you can access a doctor easily in
those rural areas. And I just I love the fact
that you're tackling this at so many different angles because
it's necessary. And I think that people joke and say, oh,
millennial tech support or whatever, but it's so much more
than that. People of all ages need to learn these skills.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, and we recognize different you know, different people have
different needs. And so one of the other programs that
we've also run is we have a municipal Digital Equity
and Planning program. So we know that municipalities are really
they do other kinds of plans on a regular basis,
they don't necessarily do digital equity plans. So we helped
over one hundred communities in the state doing digital equity
(13:22):
plan so they could understand what the specific needs are
of their residents. And then we offered implementation grants to
those towns and cities so that they can so that
not only could they identify with the needs were and
what kind of investments they need to make. We help
fund those projects that they actually could see real results
for their communities. So it's not just like a stale
(13:43):
plan that sits on someone's shelf.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, No, it's the investment into those communities. It comes
back to the state overall. It's just continuing to put
in all this energy and time. We are going to
see those results in the coming generations. And you must
be very proud of the Institute of all the work
that's being done.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
One of the things that really is impactful is when
we go out and when we celebrate these projects, when
we go out and we have you know, like a
public housing property that goes online and we can we
go out and we actually have like we hear, We
hear from the residents directly what it means to them.
We do the same thing with other projects, and really
(14:21):
that's what brings it home, is hearing what it means
for people's day to day lives and hearing directly from
them how these investments are really life changing.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Well, then how can people connect with the Broadband Institute,
I guess literally and figuratively and find out more about
this broadband program everything you have to offer, because it
seems like you are just a wealth of opportunity and information.
So where can they find you?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So we have we have a wonderful website at broadband
dot mass tech dot org, okay, and you can find
it about all our programs. We also you also can
get on our mailing list and we do a monthly
newsletter to keep all our to keep all you know,
all the all our stakeholders up to speed on what
we're doing, what's coming up, and any and any of
(15:06):
the programs that we launch, you know, you can go
to a website find out about them, but get on
our mailing list because that's the best way to really
stay up to date and everything happening in you know,
in MBI, in the broadband world with digital equity, and
because there are more programs to come. We are we
are right now. There's still over one hundred twenty million
dollars in federal funding. It's been allocated to Massachusetts under
(15:29):
the bad program that we're not spending on the projects
that we announced back in February and so and yeah,
we're going to hear from the federal goverment very soon
how how how we and every other state can access
that money and so we're gonna be very excited to
be launching to be launching more programs with those funds
as well, So a lot to stay tuned for.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Absolutely well, Michael, thank you so much for all the
work you and everybody over at the Institute are doing
to keep us connected. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
We couldn't do this without all of our partners, all
the people, all the you know, all the all the
all the community organizations that are doing the really hard work.
You know it really it really reflects an all of
government and uh, you know, and again extensive partnership. So
we couldn't we couldn't do without their support.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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