Paper City

I went out to Holyoke in Western Massachusetts to talk to to Holyoke Gas and Electric about their municipal broadband.

Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, with an estimated population of 40,135. Holyoke’s roots are in manufacturing, in particular paper mills. From the late 19th century until the mid-20th century, Holyoke was the world's biggest paper manufacturer.

 Holyoke was one of the first planned industrial communities in the United States.Today, it is economically impoverished, with a large immigrant population, high crime rates and unemployment.

The guys however at HGE were amazingly positive and committed to the work they are doing. 

Tim showing us the demonstration units that are replicas of the units deployed out in the network.

Tim, Kurt and Jim from HGE took us out to the Hydro electric power station which uses the water from the Connecticut River. 

Waide Warner  is a member of Team Fibre. He was a senior partner at the most prestigious ( and at time infamous) Wall Street law firm Davis Polk.  Waide is a Senior Leadership Fellow at Harvard Business School.

Mount Holyoke College
The Seven Sisters, a consortium of prestigious East Coast liberal arts colleges for women, originally included Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, and Radcliffe colleges. Today, five of the Seven Sisters remain women’s colleges; Vassar is coeducational and Radcliffe has merged with Harvard, becoming the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

 Waide and David Talbot.

And yes it was as cold as an Eskimo's ass out in West Mass, thanks for asking.