High-speed fiber internet service reaches Bingham, The Forks area
Oct. 17—BINGHAM — Residents and businesses in Bingham and up U.S. Route 201 to The Forks area now have access to high-speed fiber internet service, thanks to a $3.7 million state grant and a network of public-private partnerships.
Fidium Fiber, a brand of Consolidated Communications, confirmed completion of its expansion to the area in an announcement Monday.
The service is expected to be available to about 1,600 customers in the Somerset County communities.
"In expanding fiber access, we are proud to help build the future in Bingham and The Forks," Sarah Davis, vice president of market development for Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc., said in the announcement. "Fiber brings tremendous benefits and transforms how we connect to one another, especially in rural communities.
"Better internet provides communities with increased access to educational, economic, healthcare and entertainment opportunities and options. We are excited to bring the benefits of Fidium Fiber to these and more communities across Maine."
Fidium's service offers "reliable, symmetrical speeds" from 100 Mbps to 2 Gigs, or 2,000 Mbps. The company said it does not require contracts, installation fees or data caps.
Fidium, which also offers its internet service in California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas and Vermont, has been expanding its presence in Maine. The company serves about 270,000 customers.
The expansion to Bingham and The Forks area was supported by a $3,745,423 Connect the Ready program of the Maine Connectivity Authority, a quasi-governmental state agency established in 2021 to advance universal access to reliable, affordable, high-speed internet in Maine. The authority is set to receive hundreds of millions of federal dollars to support its programs.
The $3.7 million grant awarded to Consolidated Communications for the Fidium expansion was matched by about $1.8 million in private and community funding, according to the Maine Connectivity Authority.
An $8.8 million grant from the first round of the same Connect the Ready program expanded Fidium's service to 11,000 homes and businesses in the Skowhegan area, the company announced in December.
"It takes a provider like this to make it work and to partner with," Christian Savage, the executive director of the Somerset Economic Development Corp., said. "And, we've been really happy to work with Fidium."
Savage said in an interview that his agency, Somerset County's economic development arm, has been working for about a decade to expand internet access in rural Somerset County.
Previously, the corporation partnered on smaller grants that brought service to Cambridge and the Rockwood area. The recent influx of funds after the COVID-19 pandemic began has boosted those kinds of local efforts, since internet service providers are generally less interested in rural areas with low population density.
"Unfortunately, for a long time, Somerset County wasn't worth it to a provider," Savage said. "With these state subsidies and grants, it's definitely changed, I think, how the providers look at certain areas. Most of Somerset, when I came in a few years ago, what was built out was probably going to be what was built out. There were no other areas that made sense from a business model."
The Somerset Economic Development Corp. commissioned countywide broadband planning reports in 2016 and 2021, which were important in attracting an internet service provider like Fidium to the region. The corporation works to connect the municipalities, the service providers and funding agencies like the Maine Connectivity Authority, according to Savage.
"That essentially provided all that data for these service providers, saying how many locations or potential customers you have, here's the mileage running all over the place," Savage said. "It really, kind of, tees it up for them."
Improved internet access in more rural areas comes with a variety of economic benefits, according to Savage, whose agency also supports programs, such as digital skills classes and public computer access, throughout Somerset County. The economic benefits include access to telehealth, support for remote workers and other uses, such as entertainment.
Savage also called the fiber broadband technology "timeproof." Officials looked previously at other kinds of internet, but decided to switch plans to fiber because of its bandwidth capacity and reliability.
"We knew, if we could do this once with fiber, we could walk away and say everything is built out," Savage said. "We're looking multiple decades into the future with this fiber network now."
Fidium, meanwhile, said it plans to expand its service soon to other central Maine communities, including Fairfield, Dexter and Newport.
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