Business tools, market information and new customers could be just a click away for Maine’s small businesses. That is if they have access to reliable, high-speed broadband.
High-speed, high-capacity Internet access is becoming more and more important to small businesses. Without it, it’s much harder for them to get the information they need and to interact with suppliers and customers. This is especially true in rural Maine.
In Aroostook County, a lot of the small businesses that need better broadband access are farms. Ordering supplies, record keeping and communicating with buyers are just some of the things that could be easier for them.
Maine’s small businesses have a lot of potential they could unleash if the right broadband infrastructure was in place. If you step back, you can see that broadband is an important economic development tool for a community – one that could help existing businesses prosper and attract new ones to the area.
Here’s just one example of how broadband access could boost Maine businesses. Ninety-seven percent of American consumers look online for goods and services but 59 percent of Maine’s small businesses don’t have a website. How many of those businesses are holding back because they don’t have the broadband to support a website that functions well? There’s a lot of room for opportunity there, whether we’re talking about a farm stand, a caterer, a plumber or a tailor.
I know a woman who works remotely as a medical coder. But she doesn’t have broadband access at home and has to rent an office space in town that does. Think of how much more money would be in her family’s bank account if she didn’t have that expense.
I’m glad that about three dozen bills to improve broadband access have been submitted for this legislative session. I’m sponsoring two of them, including one that I’m working with the Maine Farm Bureau on. It’s great that there is so much momentum behind this effort.
Maine has made good progress in expanding broadband access, but there’s still a lot to do. About 80 percent of Maine households are underserved. Some of them have no Internet access at all – none whatsoever. And others don’t have access to fast enough Internet, which is defined as 10 megabits per second for both downloading and uploading information. This is the sort of speed that’s needed for videoconferencing with work colleagues, taking an online class or using telemedicine technology to consult with a specialist.
If you look at a broadband map, you’ll see large areas are lacking access. Some areas are far from the main fiber-optic network in the state, which is called the Three-Ring Binder. It’s three large loops in southern, northern and Downeast Maine – 1,100 miles of fiber in all.
The Three-Ring Binder is like the interstate. What many areas need are the off-ramps and local roads into their communities. Some homes and businesses are not that far from a main trunk line, but it would cost them many thousands of dollars to get connected.
People call the final section of the network that reaches the customer the “last mile.” Well, in Aroostook County and some other parts of the state, we’re talking about a lot more than just one last mile.
We need to make smart investments in this essential infrastructure so our state can compete and succeed. We need to push the network forward so that information and commerce can flow freely throughout our state. It’s what Maine needs to create jobs and economic opportunity statewide.
