Maine is known far and wide for so many great things: our work ethic, Yankee ingenuity, strong communities and amazing natural resources, just to name a few. But we also have a reputation for something that is keeping us from reaching our economic potential: inadequate Internet.
You’ve probably seen the headlines about Maine’s challenges with the Internet. We’re at the bottom of rankings for speed. In the national news, our Internet speeds have been compared to those in developing countries – and not in a good way.
We’ve got to do better if we are going to successfully compete in the 21st century economy. High-speed, high-capacity Internet access is not an extra. It’s as much of a necessity as decent roads and reliable electricity. But in Maine, about 80 percent of addresses don’t have adequate Internet and some have no access at all.
Without broadband, we’re just not going to be able to attract businesses and young people to our state. And we’re going to have problems holding on to the ones that we have. This is especially true in rural Maine, where unemployment rates can be twice as high as they are in our cities.
Maine businesses and people are feeling the impacts every day. Here’s just one example.
Here in Aroostook County, in Bridgewater, Jim and Megan Gerritsen and their family have been farming for 40 years. One of the things they do is sell certified seed potatoes across the country, mostly over the Internet.
Slow, unreliable Internet means they have a harder time using social media, getting out their email newsletter, downloading orders, processing credit card transactions and shipping products to their customers.
This Aroostook County family business estimates that inadequate Internet is costing them $10,000 a year in lost productivity.
Can you imagine that? And then think of all the other Maine businesses in similar situations.
This is why I’m sponsoring a bill to expand broadband access to rural Maine.
This problem isn’t limited to The County. I know that my Republican colleagues representing rural areas have constituents with similar challenges and they want their communities to succeed. And I was glad to hear Governor LePage talk about broadband as a priority in his latest town hall meeting.
Maine has built a strong foundation for broadband access, but there’s a lot of work to do. Our main fiber-optic network called the Three-Ring Binder extends 1,100 miles. Think of it as an interstate, one that still needs a lot of off-ramps and local roads before people can actually make use of it. This last part that reaches the homes and businesses is called “the last mile.”
It’s going to take all of us working together – Democrats, Republicans and independents, and the Legislature, the administration and communities – to complete those last miles all over Maine.
If we are truly serious about this, we’ve got to make the financial commitment to make it happen. It’s what’s needed if Maine – all of Maine – is going to prosper and succeed.
