Rural Living, but With Access to High-Speed Internet Service

[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Katie Zezima]
Gov. John E. Baldacci is leading an initiative to bring wireless Internet service to 90 percent of Maine communities that meet a population threshold (five people per square mile) by 2010. Gov Baldacci, who announced the initiative, Connect Maine, last January, is also pledging universal cellphone coverage by 2008. Part of Mr. Baldacci's inspiration for the project came from his own experience driving around the state and losing cellphone coverage, said Kurt Adams, counsel to Gov Baldacci. Details are still being worked out. The state has nearly completed a program mapping out cellphone and broadband dead zones, and a task force of telecommunications company representatives, business owners and others will deliver recommendations to Gov Baldacci by the end of the month. While the price of outfitting Maine with broadband service is still being determined, it will cost roughly $55 million to build enough cell towers to cover the state, Mr. Adams said. Phone and cable companies have not expanded broadband service outside the state's large towns because they see no profit from such an investment; large areas still lack cable television service altogether. The same is true with cellular towers; coverage has been difficult because the state's 1.2 million residents are widely dispersed, and DSL, the phone companies' broadband technology, requires users to be within about three miles of a central office. Rather than underwrite the entire effort, the state will most likely use a combination of measures that could include tax incentives, direct subsidies to companies and grants to municipalities, those involved with state technology efforts said. The state is also exploring use of the federal government's Universal Service Fund to help pay for the effort.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/19/technology/19maine.html?pagewanted=all
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