The rural towns of Shutesbury and Leverett in Massachusetts are the kind of broadband black holes the FCC doesn't talk much about. These are the American nooks and crannies incumbents deem unprofitable to serve, yet ironically fight tooth and nail should such places choose to wire themselves. Shutesbury and Leverett have been trying for years to get DSL service, something neighbors as close as 300 feet away already enjoy.

Locals have been innovative, using home-brewed solutions where cables hooked to business landlines are strung through the woods, and tupperware is used as weatherproofing for wireless gear. Ultimately a group was formed to tackle the issue, dubbed the "Shutesbury Leverett Broadband Committee" (SLBC).

The group has been sending letters to Verizon headquarters, insisting that local demand is high for Verizon services. "It does not seem right that we remain almost completely unserved by DSL while, in several parts of the state and country, Verizon is already replacing DSL with better technologies (like fiber-to-the-home)," the most recent letter complains.

The group has also been plastering these signs on local Verizon phone boxes and poles, in the hopes of drumming up local attention for their DSL fight. It apparently worked, as this week the Daily Hampshire Gazette published a report on their quest to get wired.

Local town official and SLBC chairman Aron Goldman tells us Verizon wasn't amused by the grass roots campaign. The same evening the Gazette article was published, "the signs you see in the article and on our web site were replaced with this weird looking box, behind which is tucked a business card of a Verizon Local Operations Manager," he notes, providing this photo.

The "weird box" is an old DSL splitter attached via magnets, placed there likely as a joke by local technicians. Apparently the message is that if you don't like the sign removal and the joke, (obviously within Verizon's right, since it's their property), you can call and complain. Something the towns have been doing for several years.

Goldman says his town will continue pressuring Verizon to provide service, but they are also eyeing municipal broadband. "We are still trying to get it together to apply for the USDA Rural Utility Service loan," he says. "We are also still trying to figure out the business model, cut through the wimax hype, and pressure regional incumbents to fill in our gap."