FairPoint Communications representatives are accusing the University of Maine System of unfairly competing with the telecommunications company for federal stimulus funds to boost broadband access in the state.
Up for grabs is more than $7 billion in federal stimulus act funds to expand broadband Internet access to rural areas. Maine will have at least one broadband expansion project funded under the act, according to Capitol News Service. FairPoint is proposing a $20 million upgrade that will expand broadband access to 90% of the state by 2013, while UMS is part of a private-public partnership developing a different broadband improvement plan, the news service reported. “The university is not putting forward a stimulus proposal,” Jeff Letourneau, associate director of information technology for UMS, told the news service. “What we are doing is backing one that best meets our needs.” Letourneau said the proposal would better provide UMS and other high bandwidth users like The Jackson Laboratory with affordable broadband access, something they have not been able to negotiate with FairPoint.
Severin Beliveau, an attorney representing FairPoint, told the news service the university system’s involvement in that proposal puts it in direct competition with the company. “They are in fact receiving a subsidy from taxpayers, in competing with the private sector,” Beliveau said.
Neither proposal has been filed with federal officials, the news service reported. The state Broadband Strategy Council plans to look at all broadband proposals filed by the middle of the month and decide later in the year whether to recommend any to federal officials, according to the news service.
