(22 News WWLP – Kristina D’Amours) Massachusetts will receive millions of dollars of federal money to fund high-speed internet.
President Biden Monday, pledged that every household in the nation would have access to high-speed internet by 2030 using cables made in the U.S. Senator John Velis spoke with 22News, and he said that this funding will make a huge impact on the commonwealth.
Velis says this is important for Western Massachusetts communities, where the speed of internet connection is still lagging behind the rest of the state. He adds it will also address disparities in healthcare that are online, like telehealth.
“We talk about telehealth all the time like it’s an equal playing field, and everybody has this great access to it and the reality is that many people don’t. If you constantly have access to the internet and it’s not a problem, you almost take it for granted and not realize that everyone in the commonwealth has that access and it does a lot of importance,” says Velis.
The funding will be deployed through a five-year plan developed by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute.