New Hampshire's Dark Fiber network
Wow. This might have to be our first stop for answering the question of "What can Maine do?"
A fabulous resource for community broadband networks.
An intresting article on where a town might possibly lease a line from. The Maine School and Library Network, I believe, leases lines from Time Warner and others and then provides it at low or no cost to schools and libraries.
Salisbury, NC - a potential lead for how to do this
A fabulous article with many great quotes and takeaways, including a few towns and cities that could be potential leads:
- "Would the private sector support a similar law prohibiting Wal Mart, for example, from lowering its price to reflect its lower borrowing costs compared to independent small retailers? To ask the question is to answer it."
- Salisbury, NC -- email sent to city manager on 7/14/14 asking about people who might talk on setting up Fibrant, the town's local fiber optic network.
- "Remember, incumbent telephone and cable companies go to great effort and expense to discredit these systems because they are intimidated by the threat of competition. If these networks really failed as they claim, they would not spend so much to fight them. Remember, no one fights incompetent competition."