First in the state to have fiber optic broadband connection, Edgecomb has received a $232,000 Connect ME state grant for high-speed Internet access for the whole town.
Also, Edgecomb is the first town to submit an application for such a project, which will make use of two providers, Tidewater Telecom Inc. and Time Warner Cable Co.
“We’re really pleased with it,” said Janet Blevins, member of the Edgecomb Broadband Committee. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed, having been burned once.”
The Maine Legislature enacted the Connect ME program to help provide broadband service to outlying areas of the state.
Edgecomb’s undertaking represents a major breakthrough for the community, which has been striving for much needed broadband Internet connection for three years or more.
“It’s really handicapped Edgecomb not to have broadband,” Blevins said.
Blevins has been using a wireless connection but will be switching over to the new system under Time Warner which she considers superior.
“I run an Internet business, and believe me, its very hard to do with dial-up,” she said.
Several people have moved from Edgecomb and others have not moved to Edgecomb because of the lack of broadband, which former Selectmen Chairman Jo Cameron pushed for a few years ago.
“It’s a requirement,” Cameron said. “We’ve got to encourage the businesses we already have and attract new ones. It’s a necessity of commercial life.”
In a survey the broadband committee conducted a while ago, 50 percent of the residents who responded said they badly needed broadband service because they were doing business out of their homes.
Tidewater will provide the fiber optic connection along River and McKay Roads for the eastern part of town, and Time Warner Cable Co. will provide copper coaxial connection along Rt. 27 and the western part of town, selectman Stuart Smith said.
The initiative to connect Tidewater in the first place developed when Tidewater ran a fiber optic cable from Damariscotta to Boothbay Harbor to provide Miles Memorial Hospital in Damariscotta with high speed Internet communication with St. Andrews Hospital in Boothbay Harbor.
“Time Warner was not enthusiastic about connecting to River Road,” she said.
Blevins said the committee approached Tidewater about the prospect of connection with the coaxial along the River and McKay Roads and they responded favorably. Although the connections to the coaxial could be fiber optic to copper line, the company will be connecting homes and businesses with fiber optic line.
Fiber optic provides a superior connection, since the company can boost power during peak usage unlike the cable service from Time Warner, which tends to wane some with more users online at once, according to Blevins.
Tidewater has plans to provide television viewing to its customers in the near future along with the provision of current telephone service.
In the past, the Edgecomb committee had thought Midcoast Internet Solutions was going to make use of a grant to provide broadband to part of Edgecomb.
DSL connection through telelphone lines has been out of the question for most of the town except for Davis Island and part of Rt. 1, which is close enough to the station in Wiscasset. Other locations cannot receive DSL service because they are way out of range for it, Blevins said.
Once completed, the project will undoubtedly put Edgecomb in a position to grow economically and entice people to move to the community, Cameron and other residents hope.
