The city of Boston will spend $10 million to bring broadband internet to housing developments and other city buildings.
As part of its long-term infrastructure plans, the city is seeking to expand the Boston Fiber Network to 24 housing complexes, 73 public schools and 100 public buildings, the city has said in a press release. The 24 housing developments are under the Boston Housing Authority network and are all considered “family developments.”
“With this investment, [we] are continuing to provide opportunities for our students, and providing our police, fire and emergency services with the communication and information tools they need,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said in a statement. “Through expanding the city’s fiber network, we are working to close the digital divide and make broadband services available to all.”
Bringing increased internet capabilities to these housing centers will help bridge the digital divide that effects many families of lesser means. It will also help the developments run effectively and set up Boston for future public amenities that will require internet connectivity, according to the city.
“I mean, fundamentally, this is focused on the core networking infrastructure that supports this city and that includes today’s applications like making sure that every school has adequate bandwidth, making sure that all of our public safety facilities are interconnected in an effective way, but it’s also about laying the groundwork for future applications as we start to do more experiments with smart cities and the Internet of Things,” Boston Chief Information Officer Jascha Franklin-Hodge told StatesScoop.com. “So because of those recognitions, we decided to make this investment in fiber that we expect will give us decades of growth in bandwidth and network capacity.”
The work is an extension of the “Imagine Boston 3030” plan, a long-term planning document that provides guidelines for future improvements to infrastructure, technology, housing and education, among others. The plan will also include a $30 million grant to upgrade the Whittier Street housing development.