Massachusetts government backs three public broadband projects

In Massachusetts the drive for broadband stimulus funding is not being sought by private telcos but rather by towns and cities. Governor Deval Patrick's office is backing three public broadband stimulus funding proposals. Included in this trio are the City of Boston's proposed broadband plan to serve 117,000 homes, a plan to build a 581-mile ring in Western, Mass. to be built by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, and then finally the Open Cape Initiative, which will build an open access fiber network on Cape Cod.  

That's not to say that the privately-owned service providers aren't participating in the broadband stimulus program. The Open Cape and the Western Mass. fiber ring are partnering with an outside privately-owned service provider. RCN Metro Optical Networks will build and operate [1] the Open Cape network, while Richmond Networx, a division of Cornerstone of Telephone, is vying for $3.7 million to construct a network management center for the Western Mass. fiber ring. A similar phenomenon is taking place in North Carolina where the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC) has partnered with local provider Palmettonet to secure a $28.1 million in broadband stimulus funding to expand [2] not only their North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN) but also provide [3] 'middle mile' capacity services to other local service providers.

For more:
- Telephony has this blog post [4]