FARMINGTON – Selectmen approved appropriating $2,121 from the Tax Increment Financing account toward the Franklin County Broadband Effort- a grassroots initiative to increase the region’s access to better quality internet.
The effort has asked each town in the county to contribute funds toward the first phase of the project which will produce a report on the availability of internet that already exists, where there might be any holes and the speeds at which the internet is available.
The requested amount for each town was determined on a mileage basis. Although Farmington has some of the best access to internet within Franklin County, several selectmen as well as FCBE organizer Charlie Woodworth, commented on the lack of consistent quality of internet throughout the town.
Town Manager Richard Davis reported that a Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $500,000 was officially awarded to Origin USA for the development of their new downtown factory. The Industry-born company will open the doors to their new home at 125 High Street on August 23 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. with tours of their new facility and a community pig roast.
“It will be a good fit for our downtown,” Davis said.
Hopefully the initiative will do actual speed tests and not just go by what Beeline and Verizon say you get for speeds. They are not accurate. I know at my house, I am signed up for 10mb download speeds and usually at night, we are lucky to get 1.5mb download speeds. Not as bad as the old days when we thought 56k was fast, but pretty close.
Options even in downtown Farmington area are pretty sad. Without any exaggeration in the statement: people in other regions of the U.S.A. get 4 times (and more) the speed for half (and less) the price.
This is a great first step to Better In the County’s internet, my name is Rodger White House, I’ve been pushing for faster internet throughout Chesterville as a whole rather than leaving some people out and I believe the correct direction to go for us is either Wireless or fiber for Franklin County and fiber needs to be 5G and unlimited bandwidth with no caps of any kind.
So many with faster speeds up to 1GB per 2nd Franklin County can be a Shining Light in Maine and be booming for new businesses in Residence, the county will grow substantially because of this people will generally go to where the internet is most affordable and fast.
I started working for a small Maine owned internet company recently. What I noticed from doing site survey work and installs is the availablity for our equipment to be placed on towers of some sort without cell equipment is important to help send a strong fast signal. You will find that one type of access will not cover everyone with reasonably priced access because of the locations of the buildings wanting access. I have noticed that once people are connected to our service they stay because of the speed, consistency, price, and if needed customer service. I listed customer service last because of the rarity of needing any. We use microwave and need line of sight for the purist fastest connections.
What does Origin USA have to do with the internet initiative? They’re a clothing company. What’s going on with this article?