Mapping helps Maine adapt to changing broadband rules
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By
Chris Teale
The Maine Connectivity Authority has mapped its broadband infrastructure and potential service areas, as well as assets related to digital equity. Doing so means everything can be quickly adjusted as guidance changes.
States are refining their final proposals for how to spend their chunk of $42 billion to deploy broadband internet, but one appears to have an advantage through its use of mapping and real-time data.
The Maine Connectivity Authority, with support from the nonprofit Center for Geospatial Solutions, has built maps using geographic information systems to help guide both its infrastructure investments and to help bolster digital equity among its residents. The maps, which are maintained by GIS company Esri, allow MCA to stay nimble to the federal government’s changing requirements, and allow internet service providers to bid on service locations with ease.
The technology means that federal dollars can be deployed in the state with precision. And given this year’s uncertainty surrounding the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program and the changes introduced by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, states need any help they can get in ensuring they get the most for their money.
“When that guidance came down [from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration], because they owned that entire system and we put the workflows in place, we were able to just dial the knobs back and forth to meet that guidance, and tailor the system and have it ready to go as soon as they needed to,” said Justin Madron, associate director at CGS. “And that timeline was very short.”
Maine has a “fairly strong” history in broadband that stretches back over a decade and started with the buildout of the state’s first fiber backbone, said Meghan Grabill, MCA’s director of research and data. There wasn’t a lot of money, however, so buildout relied on planning grants from various community development organizations at the town level. When MCA was created in 2021 to help deal with the huge infusions of state and federal money, that created momentum for statewide planning.
“We finally got people interested in broadband, and then with the [American Rescue Plan] and now BEAD, it's quite a different story,” Grabill said.
Things have accelerated since then, especially after Maine was awarded $272 million under BEAD, albeit subject to the restructured process and bidding rules from NTIA.
Now, Maine’s maps pull together information about specific locations and whether they are served by broadband, which then contribute to what the state calls project service areas, which ISPs can bid on to build out service. The state has 577 project service areas in total. ISPs can then log into the map themselves to explore them, then bid on areas they’d like to build out. MCA can then use tools on its end to analyze those bids through its sub-grantee process and make decisions on which applications will be approved.
Grabill said the maps “give us a general look at what the data shows, while also allowing us to drill down as we're thinking about what the landscape is going to end up being” once project service areas are fully built out with broadband infrastructure.
But it is not just broadband infrastructure and areas for improvement that Maine maps. In addition, MCA also has maps to help residents find public Wi-Fi, tech and digital literacy classes, device lending programs and more, in a bid to help boost the state’s digital equity. That effort, known as Tech Help for ME, is available in 10 languages and is built in partnership with local organizations from across the state.
Grabill said the number of words on the map is “as minimal as possible” to help make it as easy as possible to translate into various languages, with icons denoting which services are available where.
“The purpose of the map, it was created to help people get into better contact and know where there are resources related to digital assets that exist in Maine, so you can search for your town and find what's available nearby,” she said. “[It also helps us with tracking how digital equity resources are shifting over time.”
While uncertainty may still be swirling over the future of the state’s digital equity work, especially after the Trump administration pulled the plug on funding through the Digital Equity Act, the maps will help Maine position itself for any further changes.
“We're fortunate to be fairly well positioned in the process, thankfully,” Grabill said. “I don't know if it's foresight or luck to create tools that are nimble and modular and allow us to adapt quickly.”