CORRECTION: Old Town and Orono sign contract to activate municipal high-speed broadband after 10-year wait

Jun. 25—Better internet for parts of Orono and Old Town will be available by the fall through a high-speed municipal fiber network split between the two communities.

OTO Fiber Corp. — a joint venture between Old Town, Orono and the University of Maine — has been working to improve the access to ultra-high-speed broadband for businesses and residents of Old Town and Orono for the last 10 years. The group signed a contract Thursday with telecommunications company OTELCO to provide internet to the communities.

This new broadband network will provide service to 6 miles of a network already built by OTO Fiber that stretches through portions of the centers of Orono and Old Town. It will serve approximately 400 locations, a combination of businesses and homes, by this fall.

But the work won't stop there. OTELCO has agreed to build approximately 49 miles more of a network that will serve an additional 3,155 locations between the two communities by summer 2022.

In this initial phase, the Orono network begins on Kelley Road, then splits off onto Old Kelley Avenue and heads down Route 2, where it ends on Bennoch Road. The Old Town network picks up on Stillwater Avenue near Mahan's Redemption Center, breaks off onto Center Street, loops around the post office and reconnects with Stillwater near Tim's Little Big Store. It then circles part of downtown Main Street.

"Connectivity is key to economic development. For Old Town and Orono, this collaboration with OTELCO will help us see the community broadband vision become reality and allow us to concentrate on building our economic base," EJ Roach, director of Economic and Community Development in Old Town and vice president of OTO Fiber, said.

While this project has been in the works for a decade, the global pandemic forced more Mainers to use the internet for work and school, stressing networks in the state.

OTO Fiber is also not the only municipal fiber internet program in the state. Other municipalities including Argyle and Sanford have already started and completed similar town-wide fiber networks.

OTO Fiber started in 2012 when the group attempted to set up a Gigabit Main Street network that was a part of a fiber-optic service known as Gig.U — a nationwide program that aimed to bring high-speed internet to research universities and surrounding communities.

At the time, Biddeford-based internet and telephone company GWI offered to build and provide service to the network, but the plan didn't pan out.

Then, in 2015, OTO Fiber was dealt another blow after Time Warner challenged the issuing of a $125,000 grant through ConnectME Authority to help fund the project.

The project did receive a $250,000 Northern Border Regional Commission grant in 2015, which the two communities combined with their own $225,000 investment when the project started.

The group issued a request for proposals in December and by Feb. 2, it had selected a finalist to start contract negotiations. OTELCO will pay for and own the drops as part of the final contract. In OTO Fiber's initial request for proposals, the group indicated they would retain ownership of the drops.

Drops are the connections from the main fiber network lines to individual businesses or homes serviced through the network.

"This project has been evolving for more than a decade. It's so exciting to see the hard work of all those involved come to fruition," Belle Ryder, assistant town manager of Orono and president of OTO Fiber, said.

The network is intended to be a community asset like any other municipal service, such as road paving or sewage management, OTO Fiber Network Secretary Jeff Letourneau said in February. Letourneau is the executive director of Networkmaine and sits on the ConnectME Authority Board.

OTELCO CEO Richard Clark said the OTO Fiber project is a great example of how public and private entities can work together to achieve a goal that benefits all.

There will be an interactive map on OTELCO's website so residents and businesses can see if their addresses are part of the build, Clark said.

Once the service is ready to be used, residents and businesses interested in signing up for the new service will be able to do so on OTELCO's website, but that is down the road according to the company.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly indicated that OTO Fiber would retain ownership of the drops. Although that was the case when the request for proposals was sent out, in the contract signed Thursday, OTELCO will retain ownership of the drops.