Getting coverage into the rural areas of RI is exactly what RI-WINs is about. That’s what border-to-border and ubiquitous mean to the BIF and the project team. We will take innovative approaches to doing so, but can’t do everything at once. There was some mention of working with a “monopoly”. RI-WINs will work with everyone, and be totally open to incumbents and independents alike. The RI-WINs team is actively engaged in conversations with service providers of both types, and will continue to do so.

We enjoyed the Town Meeting very much, and think these comments are also great. Please give us all your suggestions. Best, BP

I think that there is an invisible barrier between that land-grant institution and the northern part of the state…you can usually hear me complaining about how URI seems invisible to the folks in the State House. But maybe that barrier blocks things both ways.

If there are projects or people who need to connect with folks down here in Kingston, please let me know, and I’ll ask some of the folks I know at URI how best to make the connections.

P.S. When Sheila and I were goofing on “in the woods”, it was in the context of getting wireless access while camping—we didn’t mean it as a slight against the rural parts of RI.

I noticed that Sheila Lennon covered the RI-WINS in today’s Journal; congrats for the coverage!

As an ancillary victim of jokes about access “in the woods” let me clarify: I live in the very town mentioned indirectly by RI-WINS staff. It is an ongoing battle to get high speed, and many residents are upset at the inability to get cable TV or internet access from the firm which has a virtual monopoly on it in RI. No DSL options either. So we can go the Hughes route (formerly DirecWay, at $600 install/$60 month) for potentially unreliable satellite service, or dialup.

Point being: many in this agriculture-driven town have small, home-based businesses or small working farms. The economic pressures being brought to bear on them – especially farmers – is profound and well-documented. To have robust connectivity would provide direct economic benefits not currently available.

Whether through a partnership with this aforementioned virtual monopoly or by itself, it would be wonderful if RI-WINS considered committing resources to addressing this town’s plight. I am not a farmer or a politician and I don’t play one on TV, and was at the RI-WINS presentation (great stuff)!

But this is a long-standing way of life in RI being constrained by seemingly avoidable limits placed on its economic growth.

The University we both attended is a land-grant institution with a strong agricultural commitment, still. Why does that commitment always seem to stop at the Scituate / Glocester / Coventry line?

– some newb in the woods