Who We Are

Broadband availability—fast, affordable and ubiquitous—has emerged as a decisive factor for stimulating commerce and fostering job creation. Access to high-speed Internet is comparable in significance and economic potential to universal telephone service and the electrification of rural America in the 1930s. In today’s world, any individual or community without fast, affordable access to the Internet is educationally and economically disadvantaged.

Governor Deval Patrick signed into law a bill creating the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) within the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) on August 4, 2008. The MBI was created to meet the broadband access needs of un-served citizens throughout the Commonwealth, leveraging existing resources and expertise, and to achieve the Governor’s aggressive timelines for broadband deployment.

The MBI is led by Director Sharon Gillett and a nine-person Board of Directors, composed of state policymakers and gubernatorial appointees encompassing a diversity of backgrounds and expertise central to the mission of the MBI.

Read more of our mission>>

History

In May 2006 the John Adams Innovation Institute, the economic development arm of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, developed a broadband initiative to support public-private partnerships to achieve fast, affordable and ubiquitous connectivity throughout Massachusetts. This initiative built upon more than a decade of work, begun in 1997 with Berkshire Connect, in collaboration with regional broadband coalitions and the private sector. The broadband initiative seeks to organize and implement a wide range of regional and statewide opportunities. These efforts have affirmed that there is no "one-size fits all" approach.

The Innovation Institute has in partnership with the Patrick Administration and the Legislature to foster opportunities for innovation and investment in order to achieve a robust, statewide broadband infrastructure that will serve Massachusetts citizens today and into the future. Achieving fast, affordable and ubiquitous broadband access will enable us to secure the education, safety, health, public service and economic outcomes citizens of the Commonwealth deserve.