The latest iteration of the bill also allots $10 million to cell service.
At a glance, the amendment to study and ultimately expand cell service in rural communities may seem low-tech compared to the other provisions. Yet Western Massachusetts lawmakers say the lack of cell service between towns — and often between two neighborhoods within a town — is a technology problem others within the state would consider unthinkable in 2020.
“I literally can’t have a phone call or conversation right now if I’m traveling, and I can’t get from here to the north side of Pittsfield without dropping a call,” said Sen. Adam Hinds from his home in Pittsfield.
Calls drop when the Pittsfield Democrat drives south to Lenox or ventures up into New Ashford, North Adams or Williamstown. It happens so often that he doesn’t bother making calls in some areas because he knows he won’t get service.
Hinds introduced the cell service amendment last week as the Senate took up the information technology bill that stemmed from a $1.15 billion bond bill Gov. Charlie Baker filed in April 2019. The provision authorizes the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security to study the current state of cell phone service coverage in counties with low population density: counties where most of the communities have under 500 people per square mile. No less than $10 million must be spent to improve coverage in these areas.
The amendment gained support from Sens. Jo Comerford of Northampton, Eric Lesser of Longmeadow, James Welch of West Springfield and Sen. Patrick O’Connor of Weymouth. The cell service amendment made it into the bond bill passed Thursday, alongside provisions to upgrade cybersecurity and software in colleges and the courts.
Hinds saw it as a move toward regional equity, proposing a solution to a problem some colleagues didn’t even know existed.
“To me it falls in the category of when you don’t experience it firsthand, and in downtown Boston, the infrastructure needs look very different,” Hinds said. “That was all the more reason why Senator Comerford and I felt the urgency to make sure this was not ignored.”
As the coronavirus pandemic exposed the digital divide within the state, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute and KCST USA, Inc. worked with local internet service providers to launch 25 WiFi hotspots in unserved towns. A 26th site is expected to launch this week. But the hot spots are a short-term fix to problems dragging well into the 21st century.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the divide for residents who had to work from home, far from offices and other workplaces with cell service and internet access. Even as offices get cleared to return, several companies plan to continue having employees work from home without cell reception or broadband internet for the next several months.
“We see for better or worse in a post-COVID world a desire to be very deliberate about choosing where you live and possibly work remotely,” Hinds said. “The more that we have options throughout the commonwealth for people to live and work, the better off we’re all going to be in terms of congestion and traffic and housing costs. So regional equity is in the interest of everyone.”
Earlier this year, the institute estimated that 29,000 residents across three dozen Massachusetts towns lacked broadband access. With the latest grant announced in early June, the institute was able to help 52 of the 53 programs covered under the Last Mile program get grants for broadband expansion projects.
Twenty-one communities have completed projects under the Last Mile program, delivering broadband to about 18,000 residents. Broadband construction is nearing completion in another 11 communities with services being rolled out to homes and businesses by the end of the year.
The number of communities that partially or entirely lack cell service, however, is unclear. MassLive could not find estimates on cell service by town. Comerford, a Northampton Democrat, said she couldn’t find any either, but the analysis of cell phone service should help the state take stock of how widespread the connectivity issues truly are.
Comerford said she hopes the cell service expansion in EOTSS follows a similar process as the broadband expansion campaign under the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.
“There is a similar apples-to-apples in that we need this kind of focused state push, and this is what we hope will be the beginning of this,” Comerford said.
The Last Mile program took multiple infusions of funds to get as far as it has. The final portion of the Last Mile program has cost more than $40 million in state funding, and the Last Mile communities rely on MassBroadband 123, a nearly $90 million middle-mile network.
While the programs involve completely different startup costs and equipment, the proposed cell service expansion would likely need multiple investments beyond the first $10 million.
“I think it’s a down payment,” Comerford said of the amendment.
The bill isn’t heading to the governor’s desk just yet. The differences have to be reconciled with a version of the bill the House passed in May.
Comerford said filling the reception gaps has become even more crucial during the pandemic, from teachers who try to call students’ parents to the person shifting to remote work to someone who may have been exposed to COVID-19 potentially missing a call from the Massachusetts Contact Tracing Collaborative.
“How are we to reach people in a public health crisis if they are disproportionately living in an area where we get no cell coverage and they can’t get a phone call?” she said.
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