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V O L . X X I N O. X V J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5 28 B ob O'Brien, one of the own- ers of the Noyes Hall & Allen Insurance Co. in South Portland, readily admits an insurance company don't necessarily require the kind of band- width that the local television production company Lone Wolf Media might need for uploading videos to clients ranging from National Geographic to "Nova." Yet, because he also serves on the city's economic development commit- tee, O'Brien says the recent installation of a fi ber optic one-gigabit-per-second Internet network in his neighborhood is great news, even if the benefi ts might prove modest for an insurance company. "We're defi nitely looking for- ward to improved speed and greater reliability," he says. "I really do see it as an economic development tool. Right now, we're only the second town in Maine to do this. It makes us stand out. It's great that a lot of folks at City Hall thought outside of the box to make this happen." One of those out-of-the-box thinkers is Chris Dumais, the city's director of information technol- ogy, who credits City Manager James Gailey and former Assistant City Manager Jon Jennings (now Portland's city manager) as key allies in crafting the public-private partnership with Biddeford-based Internet service provider GWI to install up to four miles of fi ber optic cable in several central neighbor- hoods. e new service saves the city about $2,100 a month in operational costs, he says, and gives GWI the opportunity to provide ultra-high- speed Internet service to businesses and residential customers along sev- eral corridors of the city. "It's my baby, I'm the big cham- pion of it," Dumais says, noting that the gigabit initiative achieved its fi rst milestone with the completion of the $155,000 fi rst phase in May. GWI won the contract for the three-phase project over one competing bidder, Maine Fiber Co. e fi rst phase establishes a fi ber optic connection to Maine's 3-Ring Binder Internet network in the Mill Creek, Knightville Ocean Avenue, Highland Avenue and Evans Avenue corridors. e next phase, Dumais says, is ready to begin and will expand the network farther down Highland Avenue to the new municipal services building. e last phase, whose funding is pending, will connect the James Baka Drive, Western Avenue, Westbrook Street and Wescott Road corridors. When those three phases are completed, Dumais says, the city will have approximately four miles of fi ber optic ultra-high-speed Internet service available to a signifi cant por- tion of its businesses and residents. Additional expansions are possible, he says, as funding becomes available. Fletcher Kittredge, GWI's founder and CEO, says the willingness of the South Portland offi cials to "think like an entrepreneur" was crucial to the successful launch of gigabit Internet service within the city. " e city is the anchor tenant," he says, explaining that the fi rst phases will establish one gigabit service to the city's municipal offi ces and schools. at, in turn, creates a network that Chris Dumais, director of information technology for the city of South Portland, argues that high-speed Internet will spur economic development. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY High speed ahead South Portland joins Rockport in upgrading its fiber optic network B y J a m e s M c C a r t h y F O C U S 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Other Mobile Small Business Medium/Large Business Schools, Libraries, Community Centers Home median speed (Mbps) 2.0 1.8 4.2 3.0 1.9 0.7 14.3 12.1 18.1 15.3 11.9 5.0 Broadband download speeds in Maine (Mbps) S O U R C E : Federal Communication Commission's Consumer Broadband Test

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