By Molly McCarthy, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – Gov. Deval Patrick visited Phoenix Communications Sept. 10. to celebrate the company's recent growth from 23 to 103 employees. The company moved into its new facility located at 25 Bowditch Drive in June.
Phoenix Communications is an “independent fiber-optic cable services company delivering innovative, end-to-end, turnkey solutions 24/7,” according to its website. The company's growth has been supported in part, company officials said, by the Patrick's administration's initiatives to expand broadband access in unserved and underserved communities.
Patrick and the state legislature created the Massachusetts Broadband Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and passed the Broadband Act of 2008. The act provided $40 million in state bond funds to start the process of providing high speed internet access to the unconnected in western Massachusetts communities. ?In 2010, $45.4 million in federal stimulus funding was awarded to the institute through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.
“Today, high speed broadband is as necessary an infrastructure as roads and bridges. It is an educational necessity, an economic necessity, a medical necessity, a public and commercial and a competitive necessity,” said Patrick.
The governor also toured the facility with Mark Langevin, president and CEO of Phoenix Communications. Afterwards he thanked the company's employees for their commitment to help Massachusetts stay competitive in the 21st century global economy.
Photos/Molly McCarthy