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In Maine, many rural areas still do not have reliable access to high speed internet. Even more people do not have access to affordable high speed internet. The state is largely covered by Time Warner Cable, soon to be Comcast. Both companies have a standard operating practice of wooing customers in with deeply discounted subscriptions, and then slowly bring the price up to what it's actually going to cost for the life of the connection over 18-24 months.
It's not uncommon to pay north of $100 per month for a farily middling (by today's standards) 20 Mbit connection. And that after starting at something more like $50 for the first 12 months.
Instead of complaining about it, we're doing something about it. Thankfully, in most states in the Union, municipalities still maintain the right to setup their own telecommunications network.
Unfortunately, the details and legal requirements of this process are not well understood my most people, let alone the leadership of the small towns and cities of Maine who's businesses and citizens stand to benefit the most from healthy competition in the telecommunications marketplace.
We want to make municipal wifi a rubber stamp process. By compiling a professionally-prepared kit providing documentation, hardware, support staff requirements and maintenance over time, the hope is to have an easy to understand document that enables municipal governments to take the first step towards providing an affordable and modern telecommunications network for their citizens.
Our vision is a telecommunications landscape in Maine where major commercial carriers in rural areas are forced to compete for their customers business against high-quality wireless networks operated by municipalities.
Our mission is to provide municipalities in Maine with an implementable roadmap for municipal-funded wireless telecommunications networks for their citizens.