Broadband Campaign Community Conversations

FIBTF launched the Community Broadband Campaign with a presentation of the recently completed 2020 Broadband Report – Vinalhaven Internet Planning Document. Janann Sherman, FIBTF chair, was joined by Mark Ouellette of Axiom Technologies, and Kendra Jo Grindle from the Island Institute's Broadband Team, for the live-streamed online event, which was attended by more than 25 people on Zoom and upwards of 15 on Facebook. The presentation inspired questions from participants ranging from accessing Spacex's Starlink program to the feasibility of realizing universal broadband on Vinalhaven.
 

FIBTF Chair Janann Sherman and Christa Thorpe, Chair of the Town of Bremen Broadband Initiative Committee, spoke about Bremen's work with Tidewater Telecom to build a fiber optic high-speed internet network to serve approximately 400 homes and businesses. Thorpe indicated that the town chose to work with Tidewater because they were a local company which demonstrated from the beginning an eagerness to work with local citizens to craft the best and fairest system possible. The partnership is 80% funded by Tidewater and 20% funded by the town, thanks to a ConnectMe infrastructure grant. 

 

Mark Greene, chair of the Long Island Broadband Exploratory Committee, joined FIBTF Chair Janann Sherman and over 20 zoom audience members to talk about Long's partnership with Consolidated Communications (CCI) to build a fiber network on Long Island. Explorations of cost for a municipally-owned system for their 215 full-time and nearly 1000 seasonal residents estimated a $1 million price tag. In partnership with CCI, the cost to the town is roughly half that. Consolidated will build the system; the town will provide the capital, which Consolidated will pay back by collecting an "infrastructure fee" from subscribers of roughly $15-18. Because the project is not paid for through taxation, only subscribers will bear the cost of the new system and taxes will not increase. The town will own the main infrastructure (the backbone); CCI will own the hookups to consumers (last mile). Subscriber costs for high-speed internet will be competitive and the same as any other CCI customer (no island premium).  Mark noted that the total annual "infrastructure fee" born by subscribers is significantly higher than additional tax incurred would be if the bond were to be paid off through taxation. Long Island is still finalizing the contract with CCI and hopes construction can begin this year. 

 

With Walt Swift, investor and manager for fiber-optic internet systems in Lyme, NH and Cliff Island, ME, with FIBTF Chair Janann Sherman to talk about an investor-owned broadband model. Lyme has a population of approximately 1,700; Cliff Island, in Casco Bay, has 30 year-round and approximately 100 summer residents. Both communities share some common characteristics: low to very low internet speeds from an incumbent provider (CCI), very low population density, and a common desire for reliable high-speed internet service to enable them to sustain their town’s culture and economic life in an atmosphere of increasing reliance on high-speed communications. A secondary goal was independence from large service providers control of speed and content. The solution they chose was financing from a group of investors, organized as an LLC. Swift described the shareholders as atypical of traditional investors, in that they did not seek nor expect to make a profit from their investment. He called them “angels”: anonymous investors motivated primarily by the desire to sustain and improve the communities they live in. The investors own the network, their managers work with hired contractors to build and operate the network.