"First and foremost, these services must be affordable to all Mainers."

—Maine's BEAD Initial Proposal Volume II

With Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding, the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) will deploy broadband infrastructure to un-connected, unserved, underserved, and community anchor institution (CAI) locations throughout the state. Maine’s long-term broadband deployment goals are established by statute and include: "Secure, affordable, reliable, competitive and sustainable forward-looking advanced communications technology infrastructure that can meet current and future needs."

Cost is a significant barrier to broadband adoption for many Mainers. Users often have difficulty navigating available service options and prices to ensure they get what they need for an affordable price. Forty-seven percent of the Maine Broadband Survey respondents have at least some difficulty paying for their internet service.

One of Maine's primary strategies to achieve affordable universal access to broadband is "Focus on Affordability." MCA is aiming to "Improve the affordability of internet service so the high cost of reliable internet is no longer a significant barrier, and ensure that more Mainers are aware of the support available through initiatives like the Affordable Connectivity Program." MCA will help break down the affordability barrier, particularly for the covered populations for whom this obstacle is even more acute, through targeted education campaigns, critical partnership development, collaboration in the affordable housing space, and new device donation, refurbishment, and lending programs. 

BEAD-funded infrastructure deployment and the subgrantee selection process will be vital in achieving greater affordability for all Maine people, especially the most vulnerable. The application requirements will work in concert with the initiatives in the state’s Digital Equity Plan and requirements in existing infrastructure programming to accomplish the state's goals.

The Low-Cost Service Option in Maine

MCA proposes that all BEAD award recipients offer a low-income affordability program that meets the following criteria.

Price

• A non-promotional rate of $30/month to eligible households. Eligibility for the low-cost plan option is defined as households with annual income below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Limit (FPL).
• The subscriber may use the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) subsidy of $30/month, or $75/month for those on tribal lands, to reduce the plan cost to $0. The low-cost plan shall include all taxes, fees, and any recurring monthly charges.
• BEAD subgrantees will be required to offer this low-cost plan for the useful life of the network asset as defined by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and regardless of whether the ACP is re-funded. The BEAD subgrantee may submit a request to MCA for an increase in this maximum price by October 15th of each year, with pricing changes requested effective January 1 of the following year. Subgrantee’s proposed price increase may not exceed the increase in U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index since December 31, 2024.¹ The reference base index for the price increase will be the Consumer Price Index for the 2024 calendar year. MCA, in its sole discretion, may permit the adjustment in the amount requested by the subgrantee, or in a different amount, taking into account any FCC ACP maximum subsidy increases and the most current relevant Consumer Price Index.
• Subgrantee may request a price adjustment annually, for the useful life of the network asset as defined by the NTIA, in an amount not to exceed $65, as adjusted for annual inflation. Modifications to offered rates to a level between $30 and $65 may be granted based on evidence supporting the newly proposed rate:
  • The impact on average revenue per user (“ARPU”) and total project revenue of the target effective rate above would be financially unsustainable given actual or projected subscriber adoption patterns; or
  • Is consistent with the low-cost offering the subgrantee makes available in unsubsidized areas within the State (for the same or substantially the same level of service) at the time the subgrantee begins providing service to customers in a BEAD-funded project area in the State, provided that the existing low-cost offering does not exceed $65.

Technical Requirements

• The low-cost plan must provide typical download speeds of at least 100 Mbps and typical upload speeds of at least 20 Mbps, or the fastest speeds the infrastructure is capable of if less than 100 Mbps/20 Mbps.
• The subscriber may choose to switch to another plan with higher upload and download speeds offered by the subgrantee at no cost.
• Round trip latency for the low-cost plan must be less than 100 milliseconds.
• Households enrolled in the low-cost plan may not be subject to data caps, surcharges, or usage-based throttling. They will be held to the same acceptable use policies offered to other home subscribers of other service tiers offered by the subgrantee on the BEAD-funded network.

Service Requirements

• Service shall be installed within ten calendar days of a service request to align consistently with state expectations conveyed in previous infrastructure programming.

MCA encourages subgrantees to ensure the low-cost plan is publicly available, easily accessible, provided in multiple languages, and made available to highlight on the MCA website. Subgrantees are encouraged to describe their adoption campaign plans for ensuring these standards. Based on experience to date, MCA expects that ISPs will make this affordable broadband service option available to all potential customers across their service territories. However, at a minimum, this service option must be available to locations within the awarded BEAD Project Service Areas.

Since the ACP has ended, MCA will work with BEAD subgrantees to develop an affordable offering for impacted households through successor federal or state affordability programs.

Maine's Middle-Class Affordability Plans

In Maine, the middle-class annual income ranges from $42,123 to $126,364. A standard broadband affordability benchmark is two percent of monthly income, which equates to $70-$210 for a middle-class household in Maine.

If a BEAD applicant provides 1 Gbps/1 Gbps service for $90/month, MCA will find that the applicant offers the Maine state definition of broadband at two percent of the lower range of the median household middle income.

To ensure all Maine residents have access to affordable broadband service that meets their needs, Maine's BEAD subgrantee selection scoring process offers 25 points for affordability.

• BEAD applications will receive 25 points for providing the most affordable total price to the customer for 1 Gbps/1 Gbps service in the project area. Applicants will receive 1 point for every dollar less than $90/month as it relates to the cost of the lowest non-promotional retail price (either statewide, or for the BEAD project service area, whichever is lower) of an offering of symmetrical 1 Gigabit service offered for 12 months from the start of service.
• The applicants must agree to offer these non-promotional plans and meet all other requirements of the low-cost plan outlined above, including the latency requirements, outage credits, ensuring the price is inclusive of all taxes, fees and recurring monthly charges for the useful life of the network as defined by NTIA.

The middle-class affordability strategy seeks to balance Mainers' difficulty affording broadband bills while recognizing that BEAD-funded networks should be financially sustainable to provide the maximum benefit to all Maine people.

Affordability and Digital Equity

BEAD-funded projects in Maine must directly support MCA’s goal to expand affordability for all Maine people. Maine's Middle-Class Affordability Plan, combined with its Low-Cost Service Option, MCA believes, will ensure that anyone in Maine can access the service their household needs at an affordable price. MCA intends to weave Digital Equity Capacity Grant Funding and BEAD funding with multiple other complementary sources of funding to achieve its goals:

• Maine has set aside $11.8 million in Capital Projects Fund support from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to create "Connectivity Hubs." These hubs will provide public access to the internet, access to affordable devices for public use and lending programs, workforce and digital skills training, education, and telehealth programming. Federal funding for middle-mile infrastructure in Maine will help provide connectivity at the hubs.
• Maine also aims to expand free or low-cost connectivity (wired or wifi) for residents of affordable housing units, ensuring service to approximately 41,000 households in subsidized rentals.

Notes

1. For the purposes of this section, the “Consumer Price Index" means the Consumer Price Index, Annual Average, for All Urban Consumers, CPI-U: U.S. City Average, All items, reported by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Additional Coverage on Maine Broadband Priorities

• Why Leading with Digital Equity Matters
• Maine's Vision of Digital Equity
• Maine Drafts a Five-Year Broadband Action Plan
• Treasury Support Helps Connect Maine

See the latest Maine broadband news

More in this Series

• Louisiana's Plan for Affordable Broadband
• Pennsylvania's Plan for Affordable Broadband
• Washington State's Plan for Affordable Broadband
• The Kansas Affordability Plan
• Affordable Broadband for Nevada
• Will BEAD Networks Deliver Affordable Broadband for All in West Virginia?
• Delaware Wants to be the First State to Achieve Universal Broadband—Affordability is a Key Component
• Eliminating the Digital Divide in the District of Columbia Requires a Focus on Affordability
• A Plan to Bridge the Digital Divide in Colorado
• Ensuring All Hoosiers Have Reliable and Affordable Broadband
• Increasing Broadband Availability, Accessibility, and Affordability for the Benefit of All Utahns
• The Connection Between Affordability and Internet Adoption in Oregon
• How Maryland is Working to Make Broadband More Affordable
• Arizona Aims to Make the "6th C" More Affordable
• Illinois Committed to Changing the Broadband Affordability Picture
• Broadband Affordability is First and Foremost in Maine

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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