Across the Northeast, states are working to expand broadband access in rural areas.
Massachusetts is continuing work to bring broadband to the last communities in the Commonwealth who remain unconnected with the goal of achieving 100% access statewide.
Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes spoke with The Berkshie Eagle's Izzy Bryars about their reporting on this effort.
Click the play button to listen to the full conversation.
Read Izzy Bryars's reporting here: High-speed internet is finally reaching the last homes in Florida, Savoy, Hawley and Monroe
See the full interview transcript below.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor's note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Landes: Let's start by putting this in context for Berkshire County, starting on the ground level here in the westernmost region of Massachusetts. Right now, from your reporting, where does this effort to connect people to high-speed internet stand in the summer of 2026?
Bryars: I think most people in the more densely populated areas of western Massachusetts have high-speed internet. The issue now is these last mile connections in these more rural areas of western Mass., where companies are willing to go to more densely populated areas and give them broadband. It gets trickier because it's more expensive to do this in rural areas — trickier terrain, and there's not as much incentive to do that when you know there's 100 people living in a municipality.
Landes: There's also the situation in western Massachusetts where, for a long time, there's been something of a very narrow slate of options for people to go through to get access to either television or the phone or now, the internet. Can you tell us about that sort of broader economic situation when it comes to which companies have been kind of dominating this market for a long time?
Bryars: The situation specifically in North County that I have been dealing with is that Spectrum has a large presence in Berkshire County, so it can be kind of difficult to find places or providers that aren't Spectrum.
In Florida and some other smaller towns, they have to really advocate to try and see if they can get a new company to come in. If the one they currently have doesn't work, it can take years.
Landes: Your recent work explores this newest effort in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to address these existing gaps. Tell us what that looks like right now, and what state leaders are hoping out of this this current effort.
Bryars: In 2023, Mass Broadband launched the Gap Networks program with the state, and this is funding allocated $45 million allocated through ARPA or the American Rescue Plan Act to try and to push these last mile connections, and it's $2.4 million that is going to Florida and Savoy and Berkshire County.
Also, about 2.5 million more going to Hawley and Monroe as well, but this is specifically to reach these homes that would not have otherwise been reached in typical utility contracts.
Landes: For those unfamiliar with Florida, Monroe, and other northern Berkshire communities, these are really remote places, sitting on top of a mountainous plateau on Route 2.
When you talk to people in these communities who are so comparatively physically isolated and are continuing to struggle with this basic access issue, what are they saying to you about what life is like when you can't easily access the internet?
Bryars: The biggest thing is that when you're talking about houses, it's really without high speed, you can't do more than check email, search the web.
If you're a remote worker who works with really intense programming on your computer, or you're a graphic designer, or you're a gamer in a remote area, you are not going to be able to do any of that without high speed internet.
I spoke with a guy who worked at General Dynamics, and during COVID specifically, it was just virtually impossible for him to do Zoom class with his kids and also do his remote work.
This is the case for a lot of these hill towns in these remote areas where the terrain is really thick. People I spoke with in these hill towns were very optimistic and feeling good, specifically because they had been going to so many community meetings, hearing about why this funding is doing what it's doing provided some hope. But then take the directors of the Florida Senior Center and Community Center; they were still very skeptical. They were very willing to try Spectrum and give it a shot, but they still said, 'until we see every connection, until we see that it works.'
Landes: We've seen over in Albany County in New York State, just last year, about 1000 homes and businesses finally got access to this improved internet.
Vermont has received federal funding just earlier in 2026 that would provide high-speed internet to basically everyone in Vermont. In this larger regional context here in the Northeast, how is Massachusetts stacking up to the states that that surround it?
Bryars: From what I can tell, pretty good, and I do know that the the effort is continuing.
Obviously, this gap networks program is still going on, but then also I did learn from the state that there is $18 million coming down from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to continue this push to achieve the statewide universal access. I think these continued funding sources coming with Mass Broadband is hopeful.
