Mass. invests $31.5 million in public housing internet through MBI, ARPA

Westfield’s public housing residents will be among those to benefit from a recent investment of $31.5 million from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute to increase internet access for affordable and public housing residents statewide, according to an announcement by the Healey-Driscoll administration.

The Residential Retrofit Program is funded by the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund through the American Rescue Plan Act. The program prioritizes projects in federally designated Qualified Census Tracts and properties with high percentages of deed-restricted affordable housing.

“Public and affordable housing residents deserve the same level of connectivity as everyone else,” said Massachusetts Broadband Institute Director Michael Baldino in the announcement. “This funding helps level the playing field and connects families to everything from telehealth to remote learning.”

Four companies were awarded grants for the upgrades — Aervivo Inc., Archtop Fiber LLC, Comcast Cable Communications and CBN Geneva LLC.

Aervivo Inc. received $10.5 million to upgrade connectivity for 6,402 housing units through its Connectivity Platform, including 441 units for the Westfield Housing Authority, and 46 units in Westfield, 40 units in Easthampton, 200 in Greenfield and 33 in Northampton for The Community Builders Inc.

In its proposal for the Residential Retrofit Program, Aervivo offered income-eligible broadband plans of at least 100Mbps/100Mbps and up to 1000Mbps/1000Mbps within each property they serve. Aervivo will provide devices at a ratio of 1:4 units, Wi-Fi in community areas, optional bulk service rates, and digital skills training as community benefits under this award.

When asked about the grant program, Thomas Flaherty, general manager of Westfield Gas & Electric/Whip City Fiber said he had spoken about it to Michael Baldino from Mass Broadband Institute.

“Westfield Gas and Electric has worked with MBI for many years on the ‘Middle Mile’ and ‘Last Mile’ for the construction of 20 underserved Western Massachusetts communities that had no access to the internet. This ARPA project is being managed by MBI and was awarded to four companies to update the interior wiring in aging Housing Authority infrastructure,” Flaherty said, adding, “Westfield is in conversations with MBI on supplying Whip City Fiber to these locations at the Westfield Housing Authority.”

Participating housing operators are also eligible for funding through the Retrofit Ancillary Grantee (RANGE) Program, which directs grants to housing operators to support adoption of the new internet service, and expand access to devices and digital skills training. RANGE applications are due Friday, September 26. For more information, applicants may go to broadband.masstech.org/retrofit.

A division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) is working to extend high-speed internet access and availability across the state. To achieve this, MBI uses state and federal funding to launch infrastructure expansion programs that target areas of the state that lack high-speed internet access as well as digital equity programs that tackle barriers to internet adoption and increase availability, addressing critical issues around affordability, enhanced public Wi-Fi, the need for internet-enabled devices, and digital literacy training.

Learn more at https://broadband.masstech.org .

Read the original article on MassLive .