Maine's broadband agency wants your help checking new federal access maps

Maine's broadband agency is asking residents to check the accuracy of federal coverage maps.

Maine's broadband agency is asking residents to check the accuracy of federal coverage maps to ensure the state receives its fair share of billions of dollars to expand access to high-speed internet service.

The Federal Communications Commission has created interactive maps that allow residents across the country to indicate whether high-speed internet is available at their address. Those maps will then be used to help determine how much federal money states will receive to expand broadband access in rural or underserved areas. So the Maine Connectivity Authority is urging Mainers to check the "Correct The Dots" maps' accuracy and to make needed corrections online.

“It’s simple to check your address and to help us to ‘Correct the Dots,” Andrew Butcher, president of the quasi-governmental Maine Connectivity Authority, said in a statement. “We have already identified hundreds of errors in the new internet maps. We need everyone’s help. The process to file a challenge is simple and only takes a couple of minutes, but the results could help us improve reliability for Maine people and ensure every community in the state can access affordable, high-speed, that works.”

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last year contains $65 billion to expand high-speed, affordable internet across the country. While Maine has significantly expanded access to broadband internet in recent years, there are still large areas of rural Maine without access to reliable, low-cost access, which business and community leaders say is a disincentive for economic development in those regions.

The maps are available at www.maineconnectivity.org. Responses are due by Jan. 12.