Houlton firm gets $5.5M to expand rural broadband

Downtown Houlton showing sign of Market Square in the foreground

File photo / Fred Field Pioneer Broadband, which is based in Houlton and employs 20 people, will get $5.5 million in federal funding to expand affordable, high-speed broadband connections to more than 1,600 rural households in the region.

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By Renee Cordes

Pioneer Broadband, of Houlton, has been awarded a $5.5 million federal grant to expand affordable, high-speed broadband to more than 1,600 northern Maine rural households.

Funding will come from the U..S. Federal Communications Commission's Rural Opportunity Fund, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine.

“An affordable, high-speed internet connection is absolutely vital to success in the 21st century — and with this important investment from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, Pioneer Broadband will now be able to provide much-needed connectivity to 1,600 rural Maine households,” King said in a statement emailed ahead of today's official announcement.

"By helping to bridge the digital divide and providing reliable broadband connections across rural communities, we can create enormous opportunity for families, small businesses and entire local economies.”

King, who co-chairs the bipartisan Senate Broadband Caucus, is a longtime champion of boosting broadband access for telehealth and other purposes.

Pioneer Broadband, founded in 2001, delivers residential and business connectivity throughout northern and eastern Maine, with fiber connections to practically all homes in Houlton and most homes in Hodgdon.

With the $5.5 million in new funding, the company looks forward to enlarging its broadband footprint in rural northern Maine.

"The FCC Auction support won by Pioneer Broadband will be used to bring gigabit Internet to more than 1,600 of Maine's most rural households,” said Tim McAfee, CEO of Pioneer Broadband. “We look forward to leveraging our existing network and in-house resources to efficiently deliver the fiber to the home network we have proposed to the FCC."

He told Mainebiz the company currently employs 20 people and serves nearly 6,000 subscribers.

The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, one of the FCC’s key tools in its effort to bridge the digital divide, was established in 2019 to bring high-speed fixed broadband service to rural homes and small businesses in need.

“This grant is good news for consumers waiting far too long for broadband in parts of the country that have yet to be served,” Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said of the $5.5 million for Pioneer Broadband.

“Broadband is an essential service and during the pandemic we’ve seen just how critical it is for families, schools, hospitals, and businesses to have affordable internet access," she added. "Thanks to the hard work of our dedicated FCC staff who are carefully reviewing applications and working to clean up the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, this program will build new broadband infrastructure in areas that truly need it.”