Consolidated Communications building big fiber-optic internet network in Maine

Consolidated Communications is building the biggest fiber-optic internet network in Maine and said it plans to offer connections to tens of thousands of homes and businesses by the end of 2022. It is building networks in Portland, Biddeford-Saco, the Augusta area, Rockland, Waterville, Falmouth, and Bangor. The goal is a comprehensive network covering nearly all the customers in the communities Consolidated has targeted. The Consolidated expansion will be a major shakeup in Maine’s internet market, said Peggy Schaffer, executive director of ConnectMaine, a government agency dedicated to universal broadband in the state. Many of the areas Consolidated has targeted are already served by high-speed internet and therefore not eligible to use state or federal money to expand fiber-optic service, Schaffer said. Despite being able to access high-speed internet, reliability and affordability remain concerns, and there is pent-up consumer demand for fiber to the home. “In many of these markets they are head-to-head with competitors, including the cable companies,” Schaffer said. “The fiber connections they are putting in are high quality, with low latency. Competition will help drive down costs.” Consolidated – formerly named FairPoint Communications – is the state’s largest telecommunications company and has an existing network of landline telephone lines, she said. That means the company can rapidly install new fiber-optic lines. “They have a cost advantage and a time advantage because they own the poles, and they are on them already,” Schaffer said. The expansion is privately funded, although Consolidated is a partner in a federal grant to install fiber internet in Rangeley, Farmington and Blue Hill. Maine has set aside about $250 million to bring broadband service to underserved parts of the state.