Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King and Representatives Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden announced that Maine will receive $28 million to expand broadband services across the state. This funding was provided through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Infrastructure Program and authorized through the bipartisan COVID-19 relief bill that was signed into law in December 2020. The Maine Delegation wrote a letter in support of the project.

“As one of the most rural states in the nation, Maine has unique challenges in providing high-speed, affordable broadband access to all citizens. The lack of broadband reliability that plagues Mainers restricts their ability to compete in a 21st century economy and to utilize educational, health, and other important public services,” said Senators Collins and King and Representatives Pingree and Golden. “This substantial funding to expand broadband access to nearly 15,000 Maine residents will help make rural communities a more viable place to live, work, and raise a family.” 

“I have pledged that every person in Maine who wants to connect to reliable internet will be able to do so by the end of 2024. This Federal funding will help us make progress on that ambitious goal by ensuring that more than 11,000 unserved Maine homes have access to high-speed  internet, providing them with the connection they need to work, study, start a business, see a doctor, and stay in touch with friends and family,” said Governor Janet Mills. “I thank Maine’s Congressional Delegation for their ongoing support and congratulate the ConnectMaine Authority and its partners, the municipalities of Somerville, Washington, and Isle Au Haut, and Consolidated Communications, Axiom Technologies, and LCI Fiber Optic Network, on this exciting venture.” 

“We are very excited about this opportunity.  This was a very competitive grant, and shows that Maine is a leader in bringing together public and private organizations to meet our connectivity challenges,” said Peggy Schaffer, Executive Director of the ConnectMaine Authority.

The ConnectMaine Authority is a public instrumentality of Maine state government whose mission is to facilitate the universal availability of broadband to all Maine households and businesses and help them understand the valuable role it can play in enriching their lives and helping their communities thrive. Since its inception, the partnership-based community broadband planning program has helped over 200 communities work to expand broadband access.

The ConnectMaine Authority Statewide Broadband Infrastructure Project will deploy last-mile qualifying broadband in rural Maine. This project will connect nearly 15,000 Mainers in 11,746 households across 24 rural, unserved Maine communities to high-speed Internet service and advance their economic competitiveness.

NTIA’s Broadband Infrastructure Program was established by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 to provide competitive grants to partnerships between a state, or one or more political subdivisions of a state, and providers of fixed broadband service to support broadband infrastructure deployment to areas lacking broadband, especially rural areas.