Mainebiz

V O L . X X I V N O. X V I 10 FA C T BO O K / D O I N G B U S I N E S S I N M A I N E F ranklin County's fast-track eff ort to get areas of the county underserved by broadband online is reaping rewards fi ve months after nearly 100 residents gathered in Farmington to hear the results of a study on the topic. "We're fi elding proposals from providers," says Charlie Woodworth, executive director of the Greater Franklin Development Council. Woodworth said early this year that the lack of adequate broadband "is the county's biggest eco- nomic development issue." "If we're going to have a future, we need to grow, we have to attract young families, people have to be able to work," he said. "Yes it aff ects education, health care, but it all distills down to economic development. It's critical for rural Maine." In the fi ve months since the meeting explaining the study to county residents, Woodworth and oth- ers behind the Franklin County broadband initia- tive have revisited towns to explain the study and how connectivity would work. But it's still a delicate balance between what's needed and how to fund it. e issue isn't Franklin County's alone. Lack of broadband — cable, satellite access, fi ber, DSL — aff ects everything from real estate sales and tourism to in and out-migration across the state. Woodworth says that the fact the county has attacked the issue head-on, getting buy-in from every town and unorganized territory and formulat- ing a detailed plan, has made a diff erence. " e fact that we have a plan is attractive to pro- viders," he says. e results are the culmination of a year-long eff ort, during which Woodworth and Bob Carlton, a volunteer with the eff ort, visited all 22 towns, some as many as four times, pitching the study — which got $43,000 of ConnectME funding — and asking that the town contribute. Every town and unorganized territory ultimately did, as well as Livermore Falls, which is in Androscoggin County, but shares a school district with Jay. $100 million bond in limbo A $100 million bond issue that would help fund broadband initiatives across the state, proposed by state Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoin, was in limbo as the session drew to an end. At a January legislative hearing on the bill, repre- sentatives of 16 organizations and businesses testi- fi ed in support, including MaineHealth and Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, AARP and the Maine Farmland Trust. John Haff ord, of Designlab in Millinocket, one of those who testifi ed in favor of the bond issue, told the committee improved broadband access would bring more workers to the state, an ongoing issue statewide. "We are a case study in how broadband can enable entrepreneurs and their families to locate in the far fl ung corners of Maine," Haff ord says of his graphics and marketing company. "Designlab is a part of the digital economy — 90% of our annual revenue comes from outside the Katahdin region. Broadband makes that possible." When the business was founded in 2014, the only internet option in town was dial-up, then DSL, which was still slow. If he had to send a large fi le to a client, Haff ord says, "I would hit send before going to bed and hope there were no errors during the four or fi ve hours it required to successfully upload." To upload video, he would use a portable hard drive, "go to the Irving gas station near the Medway exit, give the Cyr bus line driver my hard drive, and then ask my video editor in Presque Isle to meet the bus in Presque Isle." " is is the reality of internet speeds in northern Maine. Broadband was a game changer for us," he says. Ellen Stern Griswold, of the Maine Farmland Trust, testifi ed that Maine's 8,000-plus farms are a key economic component, with $13.8 billion in total sales, $5.1 billion value-added, and contribut- ing 78,656 jobs. "One of the biggest impediments we see to farmers growing and diversifying their businesses is the lack of access to reliable, high-speed internet service," she says. But Alec Porteous, commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, the one oppo- nent of the bond issue in the January testimony, said it would add too much to the state's bond load. He said while Gov. Paul LePage, who is in the fi nal months of his second term, "would support, in princi- ple, bonds and overall state borrowing that strengthen Maine's infrastructure and support economic growth," the debt is too much for the state's taxpayers. Berry, the bill's sponsor, said in January he knows $100 million is a lot of money. "But I wanted to make a strong case that access to rural high-speed internet is as important as access to roads and bridges," he says. "So I made a proposal on the same scale as what we pay for highways." 'Value for dollar equation' Broadband businesses have to do what's fi nancially fea- sible, and an area needs a minimum number of potential customers to make it worth the investment. e Maine Fiber Co.'s "three-ring binder" high- capacity fi ber cable passes through much of northern Maine is the highway, and the exit ramps still have to be added, says Heather Johnson, director of ConnectME, the state program to strengthen broadband coverage. Getting online Rural Maine moves forward, but money is the key B y M a U r e e n M i l l i K e n Q UA L I T Y O F L I F E Rural Maine broadband 10Mbps: The amount of megabits download and upload The ConnectME Authority Board defines as effective broadband. Areas that have maximum available broadband speeds of at least 10 Mbps down and up are considered served. 1.5Mbps: Areas with available broadband speeds that are lower than 1.5 Mbps download are considered unserved. Areas where the maximum available service is between 1.5Mbps download and 10Mbps down and up are considered underserved. S O U R C E : 2016–18 ConnectME strategic plan WIRED BROADBAND — Roads with 10Mbps symmetrical or better — Roads with 1.5–10Mbps download and 768Kbps–10Mbps upload — Roads with no service — Locations with no reported households or businesses — 3 Ring Binder fiber network Maine households and businesses (or street addresses) that have access to at least 10Mbps down and 10Mbps up Maine households in 2015 that had access to service with 100 Mbps down (high-speed internet) Homes nationally in 2015 that had access to service with 100 Mbps down 12% 10% 65%

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