At its September meeting, the Infrastructure Committee considered a request from Avangrid for a letter of support for the Commonwealth Wind Project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report, filed with Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. The Infrastructure Committee considered the request and voted to recommend to the Tech Council Board of Directors that letter of support similar to the letter of support sent to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in February.
Gene Curry and Steve Smith participated in a meeting with the Massachusetts Broadband Coalition (https://www.ma-bc.org/), which is working on projects comparable to the Tech Council’s Broadband Research Project. There may be potential to coordinate with MBC, avoiding duplication of effort. Discussions are ongoing.
MBI is hosting a listening session at Barnstable Town Hall in Hyannis September 28 at 3pm. The session is the second phase of a process to allocate the $147 million in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding. Based on a similar event in Brockton, the Committee will promote participation in the listening session.
Register for the listening session here:
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=acc9v9iab&oeidk=a07ejyhj6jw4c45d9fd
State press release regarding the broadband funding:
https://www.mass.gov/news/massachusetts-celebrates-147-million-in-new-federal-broadband-funding
After conducting a statewide survey about the availability of broadband services, the state will craft a plan based on listening sessions and submit it to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for approval. The funding focuses on unserved and underserved communities, with attention to community anchor institutions.
In terms of digital equity, the Cape has significant populations who would benefit from reliable, affordable service, including low-income, senior, speakers of other languages, and anchor institutions.