Maine-based Otelco has won a $260,000 ConnectME Authority grant that will allow the company to complete a high-speed fiber optic broadband network for residents of Alton.
Otelco applied for the grant following the Penobscot County town’s March 30 town meeting, at which residents voted to appropriate $150,000 toward construction of the Fiber-to-the-Premise project.
Otelco, based in New Gloucester, is a telecommunications provider that, besides Maine, serves areas of Alabama, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Vermont and West Virginia,
The ConnectME grant is the final piece of funding needed to complete the $700,000 construction project in the town of about 800 residents, which will deliver speeds of at least 100 Mbps symmetrical, meaning 100 Mbps both up and down the network, according to a news release from the company.
The Alton FTTP project began In 2017 when Otelco, with a $78,000 matching grant from the ConnectME Authority, built FTTP to 33 underserved premises in Alton and, at the company’s expense, connected an additional 36 homes there.
“Our company was founded by rural Mainers more than a century ago when the major phone companies couldn’t make a business case to deliver telephone service to rural communities,“ said Otelco CEO Rob Souza. “ConnectME’s support of this public/private collaboration with Alton is a critical component to making this project a reality. It will allow OTELCO to maintain our ongoing commitment to working with rural Maine communities and businesses to ensure they have the technology they need to compete and win in today’s economy.”
ConnectME also awarded Otelco an additional $6,000 planning grant for an FTTP project in Argyle Township, an unorganized territory community in Penobscot County and about 20 miles north of Bangor. The grant for phase 1 of the project will help connect some of Argyle’s 134 homes over 26.7 square miles.
Penobscot County leadership approached Otelco to explore a FTTP project similar to the Alton fiber expansion build-out, the release said.
The planning grant will allow Argyle to and Otelco to conduct a community survey, develop a community broadband vision, develop an infrastructure gap analysis, establish a high level project budget, and explore potential funding sources.