Town of Hanover Awarded 2026 Municipal Fiber Grant to Strengthen Public Safety Communications and Municipal Connectivity 6/8/26
The Town of Hanover is pleased to announce that it has been awarded $249,000 through the 2026 Municipal Fiber Grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to support the next phase of the Town’s municipal fiber optic network expansion.
The grant will fund the construction of approximately 8.1 miles of new municipal fiber infrastructure, completing a critical fiber ring that will provide full network redundancy and resiliency for Hanover’s public safety agencies, schools, and municipal facilities.
The project builds upon Hanover’s successful Phase 1 municipal fiber initiative, completed in 2024 through a previous Municipal Fiber Grant award. The approximately $700,000 Phase 1 project included 7.3 miles of municipal fiber infrastructure and connected key facilities, including Fire Headquarters, the Police Department, Town Hall, and Hanover Public School buildings. Through collaborative funding with the Regional Old Colony Communications Center, the project also established connectivity to Hanover’s Emergency Communications Center in Duxbury and the Town’s public safety radio infrastructure.
Completion of Phase 2 will transform the Town’s existing linear network into a fully redundant, self-healing fiber ring capable of automatically rerouting communications in the event of a fiber cut, utility disruption, or other infrastructure failure.
Reliable communications are essential to modern public safety and municipal operations. The completed fiber ring will ensure that Hanover’s police, fire, EMS, schools, emergency communications systems, and municipal departments remain connected during emergencies when uninterrupted communications are most critical. The project will eliminate single points of failure within the Town’s communications infrastructure while strengthening emergency preparedness, disaster resilience, and continuity of operations.
Phase 2 will also provide direct fiber connections to Hanover Fire Department Station 3 and the Hanover Transfer Station, further enhancing operational readiness and connectivity across the community. The Phase 2 project as a whole was designed with long-term planning considerations in mind, enabling more efficient and cost-effective future expansion to remaining municipal facilities as the Town continues to build out its communications infrastructure.
Beyond improving public safety communications, the fiber ring will support critical municipal services, school safety systems, emergency management operations, computer-aided dispatch systems, radio communications, and other essential technologies that residents rely on every day. In addition, the municipally owned fiber network will generate significant long-term cost savings by reducing and in some cases eliminating the need for commercial internet service providers at key Town facilities, allowing the Town to reinvest those savings into operations and infrastructure.
The project represents an approximately $265,000 investment in the future of Hanover’s public safety and municipal operations. Combined with Phase 1, this award brings Hanover’s total municipal fiber investment to nearly $1 million, with almost all funding secured through state grants and regional collaboration. This approach has enabled the Town to build a modern, resilient communications network that benefits public safety, schools, and municipal operations while leveraging external funding sources to reduce the financial impact on taxpayers.
Once completed, the project will provide near-continuous network availability, enhanced cybersecurity through municipally owned infrastructure, improved disaster resilience, and uninterrupted access to critical government and public safety services. The project also strategically positions the Town for future expansion by extending the municipal fiber backbone closer to additional municipal facilities, reducing the cost and complexity of future connections.
Construction is expected to begin following contract finalization and procurement activities, with project completion anticipated within 12 months of the grant award.
The Town of Hanover expresses its appreciation to the Healey-Driscoll Administration, Senator Keenan, and Representative DeCoste for their continued support of the Municipal Fiber Grant Program and their commitment to advancing resilient local government infrastructure and public safety communications throughout the Commonwealth.