On Friday, Aug. 9, the Maine Connectivity Authority approved a grant of $6 million to Lincoln County for the construction of fiber broadband internet in a project expected to bring internet service to residents across the county – including some who historically have not been able to get internet service at their homes.
“This is probably the most exciting thing since cable TV came in to any of these towns,” said Evan Goodkowsky, broadband infrastructure consultant for Coastal Maine Regional Broadband, a regional partner of the Maine Connectivity Authority.
In partnership with internet utility provider Consolidated Communications, LLC., the project is slated to impact 14,436 homes and businesses in 10 Lincoln County communities: Alna, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Dresden, Edgecomb, Nobleboro, Southport, Waldoboro, Whitefield, and Wiscasset, and Woolwich, in Sagadahoc county.
The $6 million grant will supplement $24,309,864 in matching funds from public and private sources, according to the Maine Connectivity Authority.
This match consists of about $21 million pledged by Consolidated Communications and a range of contributions from the county and individual municipalities involved in the project.
There are still contracts to be signed among the major players, Goodkowsky said, including the county, Maine Connectivity Authority, and Consolidated Communications, but the announcement of the grant funding was the last major hurdle standing between the involved communities and fiber broadband, Goodkowsky said.
Goodkowsky said construction is expected to begin in 2025.
“We will do a bigger rollout, and more announcements, soon,” Goodkowsky said. He identified communicating the news about the project and encouraging homeowners to sign up as next steps.
Goodkowsky said the announcement was the culmination of a years-long effort from municipalities, broadband committees, and county planners to bring broadband further throughout the region.
The development will raise property values, he said, and change day-to-day life for those impacted.
Some historically underserved, rural towns, like Somerville, which is not one of the communities involved in the grant, have opted to construct their own municipal broadband networks in recent years. According to the Somerville Municipal Broadband Board, their work is necessary because utilities like Consolidated Communications have historically declined to provide internet services to their residents.
Construction on Somerville’s municipal broadband network is expected to finish this fall or winter, according to the board.
Goodkowsky said, in his opinion, the county’s collaboration with Consolidated Communications would not pose a threat to municipal broadband services like Somerville’s.
For other Lincoln County communities currently unserved by broadband, Goodkowsky said, the project will have a huge impact.
“Those people have had no options. Some of them have not really been able to take advantage of anything on the internet at all,” he said. “It’s going to change those peoples’ lives, big time.”
(Correction: An earlier version of this article online and on page 1 of the Aug. 15 edition failed to mention the towns of Boothbay Harbor and Southport were among the Lincoln County towns included in the broadband grant award from the Maine Connectivity Authority. The Lincoln County News regrets this error.)
