A replay of this webinar is available here.

This webinar was part of the Marconi Society series on state-level planning to achieve broadband connectivity for all. Our expert panel included moderator Tanya Emery of the Maine Connectivity Authority and panelists Nick Battista, Chief Policy Officer, Island Institute; Maggie Drummond-Bahl, Maine Connectivity Authority; Kerem Durdag, President and Chief Operating Officer, Great Works Internet; Jeff Letourneau, Executive Director, Networkmaine; and Marijke Visser, Director, Library Development, Maine State Library

Maine faces a perfect storm of challenges in achieving digital equity. Its remote and rugged terrain makes the state one of the most complex and expensive to reach with digital infrastructure. As the state with the oldest population, many in Maine are not digital natives. Maine’s median household and per capita income lag far behind most other states. A majority of Mainers live in small, rural communities with limited resources. These forces combine to shape the challenging contours of the digital divide in Maine.

With the passage of the IIJA, the state created the Maine Connectivity Authority as a quasi-governmental entity to drive a proactive and nimble approach to achieve universal connectivity. Tanya Emery, Economic Development Director of the Maine Connectivity Authority, led this conversation on overcoming the challenges and closing the digital divide in Maine.

“They [community leaders in Maine] tackle large challenges in their community every day, and the only way they get them done is by coming together as volunteers, tackling challenges that everybody else in the world looks at and says there’s no way you can do that.” Nick Battista, Island Institute.

Tanya opened the conversation by asking each of the panelists to comment on what is unique about Maine that’s relevant to digital equity and connectivity. Here’s how they responded:

Maggie: Maine is a large and sparsely populated state with a rugged terrain, which makes it difficult to serve. In addition, 89% the population falls into one of the segments identified as most impacted by the digital divide. In creating our digital equity plan, we knew we would be planning for virtually every person in Maine.

Community engagement has a strong history in Maine. We have a very strong community government and the opportunity to attend town meetings to vote on important issues. We have limited county-level government, unlike other states with more regional capacity. All those things are unique to Maine, giving us a strong community base to build from but also challenges in getting to scale with a regional approach.

Jeff: We do have a lot of challenges in terms of broadband deployment and access. One is the age of our population. We’re either the oldest or one of the oldest states in the country. We’re also the most rural. It takes a lot of infrastructure to reach our citizens. With granite, we don’t bury anything as the ground is just too hard, so everything is aerial.

Maine is not on the national infrastructure footprint. Northern New England is called the black hole of connectivity because everything goes around us. Boston is the closest point to national platforms. Otherwise, we’re going off to Canada.

Nick: Maine faces big challenges, but it’s a state where community matters deeply. Community leaders tackle large challenges every day by coming together as volunteers, tackling challenges everybody else in the world looks at and says it’s an impossible challenge. They go forward anyway because they need to do it for their community. State agencies with resources to help are just a phone call away. We have very accessible political institutions with leadership who care deeply about all of the small communities in our state.

Kerem: Northern New England is also on the cusp of reevaluating its position from a cultural point of view. Connectivity is associated with an opening of the world. For northern New England, that is a brand new day. Whether through social, economic, or geographic considerations, northern New England has found itself historically insulated. World-class infrastructure allows for the world to come into a place where they may not have had the occasion to do so prior.

The biggest challenges and opportunities

Marijke: Groundwork that has been laid in some of Maine’s anchor institutions—schools and libraries—is also unique. Marrying the digital equity work with broadband access is so rare. I would throw affordability in there, too. To pull all three things together and address them simultaneously leverages federal, state, and local funds dedicated to each one. It’s really important to make sure once people are connected, they’re able to use that connectivity to address life needs.

Thanks to Networkmaine, almost all our libraries have access to a gigabit of connectivity. We have people there who are the historic information navigators now pivoting to becoming the digital navigator. There’s a real opportunity in Maine because of something else that is unique: the National Digital Equity Center, which has been providing people to help individuals navigate the online world for many years.

For the rest of this conversation and the panel’s responses to questions from the audience, follow this link to the webinar recording.