MOVING ONLINE, FASTER

A recent report on broadband access in Maine is a welcome primer on the state’s options as it watches other states expand opportunities for residents (and potential residents) to do business, send large computer files and generally stay connected to the rest of the world. As Maine continues to progress in this area it should emphasize the demands of business use, rather than home use, to ensure this state stays current in the changing economy.

The statistic of interest in “High Speed Internet: A Requisite Rural Development Strategy,” published by the Maine Center for Economic Policy, is that broadband – high-speed Internet access – has reached 21 percent of the nation, but in Maine the figure is only 15 percent. The Pew Internet & American Life Project, affiliated with Pew Charitable Trusts, found in February that broadband access is at 24 percent in rural areas and 39 percent in urban nationally, with the gap narrowing. Among rural workers with Internet access, 72 percent used a high-speed connection, compared with 75 percent in urban areas.

The challenge for rural area is partly explained by the MCEP report, written by Suzanne Plant and Ed Cervone. “With rising fuel costs and the increasing cost of building and maintaining transportation infrastructure,” they write, “high speed Internet can provide a vital and cost effective way for Maine to connect with the rest of the world.”

One of the questions to Internet users in the Pew survey was whether they had access to a high-speed line – 26 percent in the cities and 39 percent of rural residents didn’t know, which suggests a partial solution to the problem.

Maine increasingly will connect through high-speed links because the world expects it to. The company that cannot send a large graphic presentation now is the company that will lose more bids than it can afford. So while home use of high-speed connections is

a quality-of-life issue, for businesses, it may be a matter of survival.

Reducing the scope of this question to businesses also makes it more likely Maine will be able to solve it – by, for instance, expanding and upgrading its School and Library Network, which runs throughout rural Maine and offers high-speed access, by encouraging more competition, particularly among the small Internet service providers in Maine, and by using more of the fiber-optic cable installed in Maine but not connected.

Coincidental to the MCEP report this week, the ConnectMe Authority met for the first time. ConnectMe is a five-member board of Maine residents with expertise in broadband issues who are responsible for keeping the state at the forefront of broadband and cellular technology. The authority is a much-needed attempt to make Maine as technologically inviting as any place in the country.

The more residents know about the condition of Maine’s current Internet connections, the better the authority will be able to do its job. A way for residents to start is by learning about the challenges explained in the MCEP report.