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By Fran Emmons - GREENVILLE — Town officials, are working with Cornerstone Communications, a provider of broadband (high-speed) internet services in eastern and central Maine, and the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council (PCEDC), to receive a grant to provide rapid expansion of broadband internet coverage to Greenville and the surrounding area. The intent is to provide broadband Internet service to such remote areas as Beaver Cove, Harfords Point and Shirley. Currently Verizon's DSL offerings go no farther than a three-mile radius from its Pritham Avenue switching location. Potentially, the grant would allow service to be extended to Rockwood, Town Manager John Simko said. Part of the grant application is documented support from the communities that the expanded service would cover. Therefore, there will be a public meeting on Monday, June 30, at 10 a.m. at the Greenville Town Office to discuss the opportunity. The grant application will be reviewed by the ConnectME Authority, a state agency recently created to promote broadband services in rural parts of the state. The authority administers a fund created by the legislature for that purpose, financed by a small surcharge on Maine customers' phone bills. In November 2007, during the first round of ConnectME funding, Cornerstone and the PCEDC were successful in obtaining $430,777 (more than half of a statewide total of $787,184) to expand broadband service to 25 towns and unorganized townships, representing a total of 4,364 households, in southern Piscataquis and western Penobscot Counties, a project that is to be completed by the end of 2008. More than $1.5 million in funding is expected to be available during this upcoming round. Andrew Hinkley, general manager of Cornerstone, said that the company's Moosehead Region project, if funded, will bring high-speed internet service to a dozen communities surrounding Moosehead Lake – many of which have never had affordable high-speed access to the internet before. “We had earlier deployed our rural broadband Internet service in the towns of Charleston and Sebec, both of which had no high-speed service before,” Hinkley said. “And this summer's deployment of our services in 25 towns in the Maine Highlands area is proving to be very well received. A large number of our customers have DSL service at their homes or offices elsewhere, and they have said that they are looking forward to the consistency and reliability that DSL offers for their high-speed connection.” Public input and support is required for any ConnectME grant application to be successful. In addition to attending the meeting schedule for June 30, residents in the proposed service area who are in favor of receiving broadband services can help by writing a brief letter of support and mailing it to Thomas Kittredge, PCEDC, 50 Mayo Street, Dover-Foxcroft, 04426, or alternatively, e-mailing him at tkittredge@emdc.org, prior to July 14t. “The enormous quantity of written support from individuals throughout the project region that we provided to the ConnectME Authority played a tremendous role in getting our previous application funded. The letter could be something as simple as 'I am in favor of Cornerstone and the PCEDC's plan to bring broadband services to my town' with a signature and an address, but the more detail you can provide on why you need it – you run a home-based business, you telecommute, you're taking online courses, etc. – makes it much more compelling in the eyes of the ConnectME Authority,” Kittredge said. The proposed towns and unorganized townships to be served are: Shirley, Greenville (Wilson Ponds and Sandy Bay), Beaver Cove, Lily Bay, Frenchtown (Kokadjo and First Roach Pond), Harford's Point, Big Moose Township (Squaw Mountain Resort area), Rockwood, and Tomhegan (The Birches area). Cornerstone makes use of a combination of technologies. Under the plan, the majority of customers would be served with high-speed DSL service over telephone lines, from equipment Cornerstone will install alongside Verizon's pole-mounted “remote terminal” cabinets used to bring telephone service to many rural areas in the region. At the same time, Cornerstone will install high-capacity digital radio systems, which will bring wireless broadband internet access to homes in some areas that cannot be served by DSL. The “overlay” of area coverage by the two technologies will greatly increase the number of homes that can be reached by some form of broadband internet service. For more information, call Hinkley at 992-4411 or Kittredge at 564-3638
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