Bill Seeks to Bring High-Speed Internet to Maine's Rural Farmers, Small Businesses

Farmers in rural parts of Maine who struggle to maintain their businesses and ship their goods out to customers while dealing with slow, spotty or at times nonexistent Internet service are rallying behind a bill moving through the Legislature. The concept draft of the measure, LD 826, seeks to increase funding to the state’s ConnectME Authority from $1 million to $5 million in order to expand universal broadband and high-speed Internet into the 6 percent of the state that has no access to such service.

David Bright, who operates BrightBerry Farm in Dixmont (ME) with his wife, Jean Hay Bright, said that the bill could make a big difference for growers in rural Maine who are considered unserved by high-speed Internet service. “The purpose of this bill is really to say that we need to get everyone connected to broadband Internet service,” said Bright, who also is a member of the Maine Farm Bureau. “We need to look at the places that are unserved and get them connected to the grid.” “They are on the Internet quite a bit,” he said. “But they were told it would cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to get real Internet coverage out there. That is a tremendous amount of money for a small dairy farm.”