Group Targets Longmeadow Municipal Broadband Plan

May 4, 2026 – An out-of-town advocacy group has launched a campaign urging residents to oppose a proposed municipal broadband project in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

Residents say the group, Mass Priorities, has been knocking on doors, sending postcards and distributing flyers in an effort to sway public opinion against the community fiber initiative, which local officials have promoted as a solution to persistent connectivity issues.

The proposal centers on building a municipally supported fiber network to improve internet reliability and speed in the town. Advocates say the project is necessary as more residents rely on high-speed connections for work and daily life.

Learn more about the Broadband Community...

                        Start Your Broadband Journey Here
                    

“In Longmeadow, there are a lot of remote workers, and I just kept hearing over and over again how disruptive it was to their workdays,” Vineeth Hemavathi , Select Board Vice Chair in Longmeadow, said.

Supporters of the proposal argue the problem stems from limited investment by large internet providers in last-mile infrastructure, the connections that bring high-speed fiber directly to homes. Without those upgrades, residents often experience lagging connections and service interruptions.

Community broadband projects like the one proposed in Longmeadow have gained traction across Western Massachusetts, where several towns have built publicly owned fiber networks to address similar gaps. A recent report found that 19 rural communities in the region developed their own fiber-to-the-home systems, transforming areas once reliant on outdated service into hubs of reliable, high-speed connectivity.

Opponents of the Longmeadow project include Mass Priorities, a group linked to a Minnesota-based organization that has opposed government-owned broadband efforts. Jerold Duquette , professor of political science at Central Connecticut State University, described the group as a “dark money” operation, saying it acts on behalf of corporate interests.

According to publicly available data, Mass Priorities has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on political advertising in recent years, including a surge of spending tied to the Longmeadow effort.

Critics of the campaign argue that such groups are motivated by the potential impact municipal broadband could have on private internet providers, which dominate many local markets.