LITCHFIELD — Litchfield is now the most recent central Maine town to sign on with Redzone Wireless, a Rockland-based company offering high-speed internet with the power to completely cover underserved communities.
Town officials agreed to use federal American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the project, which will completely cover the town’s $375,000 share of the internet project.
In Litchfield, a town with approximately 3,600 residents, there are 239 households without access to reliable high-speed internet.
“We should have 100% coverage,” said Litchfield Town Manager Kelly Weissenfels.
Last month the town of Fayette, in which 825 locations were without access to reliable high-speed internet, voted to move forward with a Redzone Wireless contract.
According to Redzone Wireless CEO James McKenna, the service is able to connect unserved and off-grid locations wirelessly, just like mobile broadband has been doing for over two decades. Last month he said the company’s purpose-built wireless technology is “specifically engineered to form a non-line-of-sight last-mile bridge between the fiber network on the home.” This is made possible through Redzone’s collaboration with Tarana Wireless, a company whose Gigabit 1 technology delivers speeds over a long range, hitting otherwise unreachable spots.
McKenna said the company provides service to more than 100 Maine communities. In late November the company was responding to proposal requests from at least 30 Maine communities, and McKenna said the list of towns requesting proposals and information from Redzone is increasing each week.
Weissenfels said the pricing, architecture, proposed timeline and cost-share is the same for Litchfield as it was in Fayette.
He said the total cost for the project is about $1.2 million, with Litchfield’s share being $375,812. Redzone would also cover any future costs for operating expenses, technical support, network, maintenance and technology.
The service would give most residents access to the service within six months and be available to all within nine months.
Redzone’s residential packages range from $50 a month to $99 a month.
As part of Redzone’s agreement, the town can simultaneously establish another internet service if they choose.
“We’re happy about that, because it’s going to increase competition,” Weissenfels said. “But anybody who is happy with their existing service can keep it. It’s not an exclusive contract, so the idea is that we can get unserved households served quickly, and this is a very high-quality addition to the current available offerings.”
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