NEW GLOUCESTER — Maine-based OTT Communications, a division of Otelco Inc., announced today that it is the first company to bring 10 gigabits per second of Internet connectivity to the full northern ring of Maine Fiber Company’s Three Ring Binder network.
It has already signed two iconic, major Maine companies, Woodland Pulp LLC and Jasper Wyman and Son, as well as the new enterprise St. Croix Tissue, Inc. to grow their businesses using the high-speed service.
“We are excited that OTT Communications is bringing 10-gigabit broadband speed to some of the most rural parts of Maine, said Theresa Fowler, executive director at the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce.
“The success and competitiveness of modern forestry and farming industries depends on having immediate, continuous access to sophisticated technologies and data. Having 10 gigabit speeds available will also open up opportunities to grow and attract other businesses and jobs,” Fowler said. “This is a positive step for the Aroostook County economy.”
“Our company was formed by rural Mainers over 100 years ago when the major phone companies were uninterested in bringing the latest technology, then the telephone, to rural communities,” said Biddeford native and Otelco CEO Rob Souza.
“OTT’s investment to bring 10 gigabits per second of capacity to the full Northern Ring will foster our efforts to bring the very latest in communications and cloud services to the 77 rural Maine communities the Three Ring Binder connects in Aroostook, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Hancock and Washington counties. This initiative demonstrates our ongoing commitment to making sure rural communities and businesses have the technology they need to compete and win in today’s economy.”
“We congratulate OTT Communications for being a first-mover when it comes to bringing 10 gigabits to the entire northern ring of our network,” said Jeff McCarthy, vice president of business development at the Portland-based Maine Fiber Company.
“OTT’s commitment and investment in lighting 10 gigabits around the full northern ring is an important step and provides exciting new opportunities for communities and businesses in rural, northern and eastern Maine.”
Maine Fiber Company’s network is what is called “dark fiber,” meaning that it owns the fiber-optic infrastructure, but does not actually provide services to residential or commercial end users. Under the agreement announced today, OTT is paying to lease and “light” fiber to provide services to end users all along the route and to have the capacity to expand services into new areas.
“We are proud to welcome three great companies — Woodland Pulp LLC, St. Croix Tissue, Inc. and Jasper Wyman and Son — as OTT customers,” said Bob Froberg, director of commercial and wholesale sales at OTT. “We expect many other business and IT leaders in the region will be very interested in access to 10 gigabit speeds and high-end business services these improvements will allow.
“More importantly,” Froberg said, “the network security and redundancy that lighting the entire upper ring provides will greatly enhance network reliability for those businesses. If a car or storm takes out a telephone pole in one direction on the ring, data can be instantly and securely routed in the other direction without any interruption in service.”
