Western Massachusetts towns called "a new kind of ghetto"

The Boston Globe published a story today reporting much of western Massachusetts exists in dial up purgatory with no broadband Internet infrastructure. The story includes a map that shows broadband availability -- and specifically the lack thereof -- in much of the Bay State.

"We have to make sure that all of Massachusetts is open to business -- not just the areas where it is easier or more profitable for certain companies to make available high-speed Internet access to their customers," said Stan McGee, the state's director of wireless and broadband development, at a budget hearing in March.

While communities wait for a statewide policy, they are using the resources at hand.