CARIBOU, Maine — The Broadband Coalition, a local effort to bring high-speed internet to every Caribou resident, ran into a roadblock Monday when it failed to get City Council approval for their proposed business plan study.
This study would have been one of the group’s initial steps toward bringing high speed internet access, possibly including fiber-optic cable, to Caribou. After interviewing three different firms, the coalition decided that Tilson, a tech company from Portland, was best for the job, and proposed entering into a $46,500 contract with the firm.
Ideally, Tilson would have provided the coalition and the city of Caribou with a detailed projection of revenue, expenses, debt costs, subscription rate projections, capital expenses, build-out plans, and ownership strategies. The Portland-based company would, ultimately, have helped Caribou determine the best possible method of attaining high-speed internet.
“I theorize at some point in time there will be an Emera internet we’ll be making payments to,” said coalition member Mike Quinlan. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have had the forethought to think about making those payments to something the city could potentially recoup and keep as profits?”
Councilor Shane McDougall concurred.
“Almost all the communities I work with are studying this very thing,” said McDougall. “I’m glad to be on the broadband committee; it has opened my eyes to several economic development scenarios, and I favor the move forward.”
Mayor Gary Aiken, on the other hand, questioned the group’s proposal.
“I’ve talked to about 50 people here and asked them if their internet is meeting their needs,” Aiken said. “Out of fifty, there were maybe two who said it wasn’t, but they had Fairpoint and could upgrade to 50 megabits per second with Time Warner.”
The mayor then asked City Manager and Coalition Member Austin Bleess if he knew how many companies left, or refused to move to, Caribou because the internet didn’t meet their requirements.
“It’s not so much about big companies looking to come here,” said Bleess. “It’s more about families looking to get outside the Boston and New York areas and work from a rural area with a better quality of life and better schools. If you talk to realtors in the area, they have a tough time selling houses because there is a lack of high speed internet.”
Aiken asked, hypothetically, how much it would cost to install high-speed internet throughout the city.
Bleess said that, roughly, it would cost about $15,000 to $20,000 per mile. And that it would cost approximately $2.25 million to cover the entire city.
Along with McDougall, Councilor David Martin expressed support for the study.
“The bottom line is that if we do nothing, then 10 years from now, 30 percent of us will be over 65,” Martin said. “If we can spend $80,000 this year to tear down part of Bird’s Eye, then I think we can spend $40,000 on a chance to bring younger people to Caribou.”
“My hidden agenda here is that I’d like to have cheap, great internet,” Quinlan said, “and see the profits go back to the city.”
Aiken suggested that Quinlan start a private, as opposed to municipal, high speed internet service and donate the profits back to the city.
“We are being so shortsighted about economic development,” McDougall said, “we need to continue economic development in this community, and the broadband coalition has gotten together and provided a very good solution to look at.”
“I would suggest another solution,” Aiken said. “There are communities doing quite well who are not so far away. Surprisingly, they’re just across the border. They have stores that would make Presque Isle jealous, never mind us. They’ve got a super store you could put all of Caribou’s grocery stores into and still have room left over. Their population is growing and they’re getting more retail business. Wouldn’t it be worth our time to speak with them and see what they’re doing?”
Quinlan agreed with the mayor’s idea, just before council voted 4-2 against the coalition’s business study proposal.
