Dear Editor:

Tom Myette’s letter “Support broadband: Island Institute is wrong” (5/23/22) misrepresents the Island Institute’s role and intentions regarding Southport’s efforts to expand high speed internet to all community members. Our role has been to assist the town of Southport in navigating the complexities of this process—including developing clear goals, exploring business models that work for community members, and identifying financial resources available to the town.  

The Island Institute has supported more than 80 Maine communities in understanding and navigating options to improve broadband. Just as we support Southport’s approach of a public/private partnership where the town owns the infrastructure and partners with a private sector company to provide service, we were glad to support nearby Westport Island’s process that resulted in partnering with Spectrum to seek an expansion, for which they were awarded ConnectMaine funds. We also supported Bremen in their partnership with the local telephone company, Tidewater Telecom. They, too, secured a ConnectMaine grant to subsidize the fiber network that is owned and operated by the private sector partner.

Ultimately, how Southport moves forward in this process is up to community members. We have witnessed this process unfold in dozens of communities across the state, and we understand that each situation is unique. We believe Southport’s current proposal to be a sound one and we applaud the broadband committee and selectboard for all the hard work getting the town to this point in the process to support the goal of universal high-speed internet for all residents.

Kendra Jo Grindle

Broadband Team Lead