Cape Cod Wins Broadband Stimulus Grant

OpenCape won the $32 million it requested to deploy a 350-mile fiber backhaul to connect government agencies, hospitals, research organizations and other anchor institutions, both public and private sector, to high-speed broadband.

Massachusetts contributed $8 million in matching funds. Town IT officials see the forthcoming network as a vehicle for finally sharing IT platforms with other towns, according to Teresa Martin, vice chair of OpenCape. Having struggled for years with spotty connectivity and small budgets, many towns on the cape have been without technologies other areas take for granted, like online permit application functionality. Using the forthcoming fiber backhaul, set to include a regional data center, local Cape Cod towns will be able to share such applications. The regional data center, owned by OpenCape, will house whatever servers are necessary for the shared applications. The fiber will deliver them to the various local government offices. A central GIS repository is among the first projects Martin expects to see towns share.