CARIBOU, Maine — A Maine group that has halted previous municipal broadband networks is out to convince the Caribou City Council to dump the city utilities district’s fiber-optic plans in favor of a Spectrum proposal.
The Caribou Utilities District is applying for grants to construct a single strand of dark fiber that they claim will offer gigabit speeds to all Caribou residents, starting with those in the most rural areas.
City leaders say high-speed broadband is key to attracting more businesses and residents. A study by a local internet provider and a city business group determined a city network could benefit more than two-thirds of Caribou residents. Like other Maine communities, Caribou must decide whether to partner with the familiar and dominant internet provider Spectrum or take a chance on a new model, one that could put them in competition with other providers and local leaders.
In 2021, the city used $159,000 of its American Rescue Plan Act funds to study how many residents are under- or unserved by the city’s current broadband options. Pioneer Broadband and Caribou’s Business Investment Group collaborated on the study, which estimated a citywide network could better serve 5,150 households. At least 2,900 households receive poorer internet service than those in the downtown business district.
Since the district is not a city department, councilors do not have authority to pause or stop the project. But the council has been considering expansion proposals from Consolidated Communications and Spectrum.
Spectrum has been working to influence councilors’ votes and citizen opinions through the Alliance for Quality Broadband Maine. In October, the Portland-based ad hoc group issued several advertisements that called the project “risky” and “wasteful” and criticized the multi-year timeline for constructing the dark fiber network.
The alliance lists Spectrum’s parent company, Charter Communications, as a partner on its website.
Alliance for Quality Broadband Maine appears to have taken the Caribou ads off its Facebook page. But the ads reached at least 5,000 people, according to Facebook data. Caribou’s population as of the 2020 U.S. census was 7,396. The alliance and its partners spent at least $100,000 on one Caribou ad and at least $700,000 on another, the data show.
The alliance’s other ads have praised towns like Hampden for rejecting municipal-based broadband expansion projects.
In 2021, Hampden residents rejected a $4.5 million municipal network after the conservative think tank Maine Civic Action campaigned against the local bond question. Earlier this summer, Southport residents voted against a similar project after the alliance and Spectrum partnered to mail flyers critical of community-based broadband.
Spectrum officials did not respond to requests for comment, but sent a letter to Caribou officials on Sept. 13 in which Melinda Kinney, senior director of government affairs for Charter, confirmed the $1.4 million cost of Spectrum’s proposal. The company would expand coverage to 294 unserved homes in Caribou and install 43 miles of dark fiber, increasing coverage to 74.5 miles. The project would take only 12 to 18 months, Kinney said.
But there’s a catch. The city’s expected financial contribution would be reduced from $875,133 to $496,982, on the condition that Caribou does not proceed with the Caribou Utilities District’s project, Kinney said in the letter.
“There are numerous examples, including in the Northeast, of government-owned internet networks failing, the network shutting down or sold for pennies on the dollar, leaving taxpayers saddled with substantial debt,” Kinney wrote.
Spectrum is aware the utilities district is not a city department and councilors cannot stop those broadband expansion efforts, City Manager Penny Thompson said. But Spectrum’s offer is still contingent on the city not providing financial support to the district.
Last spring, councilors publicly endorsed a charter change allowing the utilities district to add broadband as a utility. But if they vote to financially contribute to Spectrum or Consolidated’s project instead, the city would end up competing with its utilities district for internet customers.
“I feel like that would send a mixed message to the community, like we don’t really know what we’re doing,” said Hugh Kirkpatrick, the district’s general manager. “The city can choose another option, but why do that after they already supported the public option?”
Kirkpatrick has long criticized Spectrum’s plan for not clearly stating whether the company would expand coverage to the most rural residents.
The district will begin fiber network construction in the outskirts of the city in late summer or early fall next year, Kirkpatrick said. It will work its way to the center of town over several years. Each phase is estimated to cost at least $1.3 million, with grants and loans expected to pay for the project. The district would be responsible for those expenses, he said.
The district will model its network on successful municipal-based projects like Downeast Broadband Utility, a partnership that offers a dark fiber network to Calais, Baileyville, Alexander and Indian Township residents. Isleboro Municipal Broadband offers the same type of network to the coastal town.
The district’s board of trustees has already tapped Houlton-based Pioneer Broadband and Biddeford-based Great Works Internet to provide internet services. Pioneer and Great Works provide coverage for Downeast Broadband and Islesboro, respectively.