Two grants will expand access to broadband in Fayette and Wilton

​

FAYETTE and WILTON – The Maine Connectivity Authority today awarded two grants to connect hard-to-reach locations in Fayette and Wilton with access to affordable, quality, high-speed internet.

The Town of Fayette, in cooperation with Consolidated Communications, will receive a Connect the Ready grant of $1,875,000 to reach approximately 440 homes and businesses. The town of Wilton, also in collaboration with Consolidated Communications, will receive a Reach Me grant of $311,000 to connect approximately 169 hard-to-reach locations requiring underground infrastructure.

These two grants reallocate dollars initially awarded to internet service provider Matrix Design Group, which was awarded grants to serve the two towns in early 2023. Matrix ultimately declined the awards in December 2023 when it declared it could not fulfill the grant requirements. Following that declination, a Request for Proposals was issued for the town of Fayette, which resulted in four competitive proposals. Similarly, the town of Wilton followed a community-driven process, identifying their provider of choice based on competitive service options.

“Every community in Maine faces its own challenges when it comes to providing access to affordable, high-speed internet service,” Andrew Butcher said, president of the Maine Connectivity Authority. “While the projects in Fayette and Wilton look a little different than originally imagined, they demonstrate how the towns, internet service providers and MCA can work creatively and collaboratively to solve problems and get people connected to quality internet. The fact that five separate companies were competing to provide internet service in these towns represents is something to be encouraged by.”

While these grant awards did not follow a traditional trajectory, the Connect the Ready grant program opened the door for visibility into each community’s unique needs and the competitive opportunity available to providers. These grants complement Consolidated Communications’ privately funded expansion of high-speed internet in both communities. As a result, MCA can reallocate approximately $4 million that was originally awarded to other areas of need and infrastructure projects in the future.

Funding for the Connect the Ready and Reach Me Programs was made available through the American Rescue Plan Capital Projects Fund.

Quotes from partners:

“We are greatly appreciative of the work by the MCA staff that has led to the recommendation of an internet service provider committed to serving every resident in the Town of Fayette!” Mark Robinson said, Town Manager of Fayette. “The investment of the MCA grant funding in this town has been the result of a long, at times arduous, journey that all of us will be greatly relieved to see completed for the benefit of the people of Fayette.”

“Congratulations to the town of Fayette and its residents on this award,” Hildie Lipson said, Kennebec Broadband Partnership Director. “Now, every location in town will have access to fiber broadband for the first time. This dramatically improves access to high-speed internet for education, training, employment, and telehealth visits. With Fayette getting connected, we are one step closer to bridging the digital divide in Kennebec County.”

“This collaboration offers a tremendous opportunity for the Town of Wilton and its residents,” Maria Greeley said, Town Manager of Wilton. “We want to thank those individuals who have been involved with this process for their time and effort, as their dedication to the Town of Wilton is proved with this collaboration. As a community, we look forward to seeing the positive impact this will have town-wide.”

“In 2017, the Franklin County Broadband Initiative was established by citizen leaders who saw that obtaining reliable high-speed broadband throughout the county was going to be the keystone to allowing for community and economic growth,” Charlie Woodworth said, Executive Director of the Greater Franklin Economic & Community Development. “Our service center towns agreed and helped to grow this initiative by establishing their own Broadband Committees to inform and align their fellow citizens in recognizing the essential need to improve their connectivity. From the beginning, the leadership of the town of Wilton recognized that a public/private partnership would be the solution for attracting investment. This has been a long and persistent effort by all parties, and we are thrilled each resident of Wilton will be able to connect to a FIBER network before the end of this summer. The Franklin County Broadband Initiative is responsible for seeing that 96% of the entire county can connect to a fiber network. By the end of 2024, 98% of the county will be able to connect to fiber. Thanks to the early vision of Connect Maine and now the funding through Maine Connectivity Authority, I believe that we are leading the state in this metric.”