The toughest mile
State provides funding to wire rural towns for internet
By 
Jack Sullivan
Economics, Growth and Development, State Government, Technology
2 Comments
IN 2008, THE Patrick administration set out to wire 123 cities and towns in western Massachusetts for broadband. But eight years, 1,200 miles of fiber-optic cable, and nearly $100 million later, the effort has stalled with 44 communities still without high-speed internet. The towns that remain essentially disconnected—or, in the words of state officials, “unserved”—represent(...)