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WORCESTER – Over 250 community, business, and nonprofit leaders assembled at Worcester’s Union Station on Tuesday, June 13th, for Internet for All: Massachusetts Broadband & Digital Equity Summit, an event organized by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI). The event included talks and panels featuring community executives, government officials, labor representatives, industry speakers, and broadband and digital equity experts who spoke about best practices to deliver affordable, reliable high-speed internet access to citizens across Massachusetts.

BEDFORD — Governor Maura Healey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, and Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao joined executives from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to announce a $2,052,767 grant to the MITRE Corporation today to create BlueTech OCEAN (Open Collaborative Experimentation and Acceleration Network), a two-year project that will boost the state’s global leadership in ocean science, marine robotics, clean energy, and other game-changing marine industries.

WEST STOCKBRIDGE - As part of Small Business Month, Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito today joined Berkshire County leaders to tour downtown small businesses that are benefitting from upgrades made by Charter Communications and the Massachusetts Broadband Institute’s (MBI) Last Mile Infrastructure Grant Program. West Stockbridge, Hinsdale, and Lanesbrough did not have access to any broadband services until receiving a 2016 grant through the Last Mile program. The program and investments in broadband infrastructure for towns unserved by high-speed internet are improving channels for businesses to connect with customers and providing digital and educational tools to residents and students.

Boston – Tuesday, May 10, 2016 – The Baker-Polito Administration met with municipal broadband leaders from across Western Massachusetts today to discuss a new framework for evaluating and advancing Last Mile Broadband projects in communities unserved or underserved by high-speed internet access. The dialogue centered on a flexible, responsive and community-based approach to prioritizing affordable and sustainable solutions to the broadband service challenges facing the Commonwealth’s 44 Last Mile communities.

WESTBOROUGH - Today the Baker-Polito Administration announced the launch of a competitive solicitation for private sector proposals to close Last Mile broadband gaps in western and central Massachusetts towns. The request for proposals, issued by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute at MassTech (MBI), will identify qualified private firms willing to design, build, own, operate, manage, and maintain high-speed broadband internet networks in the 40 Massachusetts towns currently unserved by broadband.

PELHAM –Lt. Governor Karyn Polito joined leaders from nine western and central Massachusetts communities to celebrate the completion of the Broadband Extension Program, a project funded under the Commonwealth’s Last Mile program. The celebration took place in the Pelham Library and was attended by executives from Comcast, which oversaw expansion of broadband networks in nine towns in western and central Massachusetts, leaders from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), and community leaders from the nine communities.

WESTBOROUGH – The Massachusetts Broadband Institute at MassTech (MBI) and Comcast have reached an agreement that will extend broadband access in nine municipalities in Western and North Central Massachusetts, a project which is estimated to deliver broadband connectivity to 1,089 new residences and businesses, and will bring the overall coverage level in each town to 96% or above. The grant will provide up to $4 million in state funds to reimburse partial project costs for Comcast, which has existing networks in each of the towns, to construct broadband internet extensions to additional homes and businesses.