Internet connectivity is increasingly becoming the essential tool for 21st century success. With a robust broadband connection, we can balance our love of the Maine lifestyle while retaining access to high-paying job opportunities, world-class education, telehealth medicine, up-to-date news and emergency notifications, and immersive entertainment options.
What is Broadband?
Broadband is a term we throw around that is often synonymous with Internet, but really it is a technical term for the signaling method behind high-speed Internet. It is a data transmission signal operating over a wide range of frequencies that can be sent using fiber optic cable, coaxial cable, twisted pair cable, wireless radio (Wi-Fi, cellular, etc), or wireless satellite. This broad range of data bandwidth enables multiple devices to simultaneously send (upload) and receive (download) information more quickly – the more megabits per second (Mbps) you have available to use in your home, the more devices in your home can more quickly take advantage of everything available to you online.
What are the differences between the various Broadband connections?
- DSL provided by Consolidated Communications (formerly Fairpoint) uses existing copper phone lines to provide broadband. The closer you are to the office, and the better quality your lines, the faster your service will be. This is widely available in in our area but many users are frustrated by the lack of reliability and speed of this older tech.
- Coaxial Cable TV lines from Spectrum (formerly Time Warner) can provide very fast broadband, if it is available at your home. Speed is reduced the more local users there are online at once.
- Wireless hotspots use the shared cellular phone bandwidth from US Cellular, Verizon, or T Mobile locally to provide fast LTE Internet speeds, and sometimes even faster 5G speeds. Unfortunately, even “Unlimited” data plans sometimes slow you way down after too much usage, making it difficult to watch video content for very long. Wireless coverage is spotty and can be affected by weather.
- High Altitude Satellite dishes like those offered by HughesNet can provide broadband, if you have a clear line of sight to the satellite from your home. Because satellites are so far away, data requests are not as responsive as they are from other services. Like cellular services, satellite services currently slow you down if you use too much, are affected by weather, and are usually the most expensive option. Very few users are happy with this choice.
- Low Earth Orbit Satellite Broadband offered by Starlink and soon others relies on thousands of smaller satellites much closer to Earth that allows for much faster connections than traditional satellite services as the signal travels less distance. You do still need a clear line of sight to a larger section of the sky, but performance in bad weather is usually not a problem. This option is still very expensive, but for many people in our region it is the fastest (or sometimes only) choice available.
- Fiber Optic Cable uses glass fibers to guide lasers transmitting Broadband data at incredible speeds. Some fiber optic cables are already in our area as backbone for Cable TV providers or for some businesses and schools, but it is not generally available to consumers currently.
What does Mbps (Megabits per second) mean in the real world?
Please watch this video (click here) where we explain with simple comparisons how data on the Internet moves to help understand this term and why it is important for you and the others in your home to fully enjoy the content available out there.
How will better Broadband affect real estate prices?
One of the original reasons Broadband Committees were formed in our region was in response to new residents letting town offices know that something needed to be done to improve local Broadband. According to the National Association of Realtors, homes with access to 25 Mbps Broadband have roughly 3% higher values than houses with only 1Mbps Broadband, and many new home buyers won’t even consider purchasing a home without access to robust Broadband.
How much will upgrading local Broadband cost my town?
Answering this question accurately is one of the most important goals of the Eastern Slopes Regional Broadband volunteer group. At this point we are very much in the research stage of the process, and are diligently gathering data to make sure we understand the needs of our towns so we can solidify the impact such a project might have. What we do know for sure is that the towns and districts that are well prepared will receive more State and Federal grants than those that are not ready, and that currently there is a lot of this money up for grabs that we want to enhance our region.
How much will the new Broadband cost me each month?
Until we are much further along in the process, we can’t speculate about monthly rates. A guiding principle for us to to promote affordable Broadband for all residents, so we will do our best to make sure whatever options we recommend will have plans for all income levels.
When will new Broadband options be available in our area?
Most of us volunteering for this project did so because we wanted to do everything we could to speed this transformative project along, and we are just as eager as you are for faster Internet access! We don’t currently have an answer for this question, and honestly we are still getting the data together to have towns be able to vote on whether it will ever happen at all. Ultimately projects like this take years from start to finish, and many of us already have a few years invested. Keep visiting our website for updates as we hit milestones and inch closer to the finish line.
Why now?
Bipartisan political support for rural Broadband upgrades is very strong right now. The pandemic revealed glaringly insufficient Broadband access nationally, so many grants and programs to assist are coming online. We want our area to be able to take advantage of this available capital to solve our local inadequacies.
I’ve already got Cable Internet from Spectrum, why would I want anything else?
Local families that are lucky enough to have coaxial cable near enough to their house to choose Spectrum as a provider generally have a pretty good experience right now, so we understand your question. When all is said and done, the project may see Spectrum as our chosen partner to expand access to families who don’t have it – we are too far away from the finish line to say. What we are finding though is that communities with multiple high-speed Broadband options tend to have lower monthly rates and better service due to the competition. Technologically, there are other solutions that are faster and more future proof than cable, such as fiber to the home. If we can find a solution (either from an enhanced Spectrum offering or from another provider) that upgrades your speed, extends the life of the physical network, and lowers your monthly bills, why wouldn’t you support such an endeavor?
I just got Starlink, why would I want anything else?
Starlink is an excellent solution for high-speed broadband in our area… if you can afford it. The upfront costs are high, and the monthly rates are high and have already been raised once for current subscribers. Beyond cost, it remains to be seen how reliable the low-earth-orbit satellites will be over time; it is potentially vulnerable to solar storms and could become a military target in times of conflict. There is currently a long waiting list to sign up and as more subscribers join users may also see reliability suffer. What we can say for sure, is regardless of how great it is for people that are lucky enough to have it right now, the cost, availability, and line-of-sight restrictions mean it is not a solution for everyone in our region… and we want everyone to be able to connect.