Buckfield Broadband Project
The Buckfield Broadband Project started in 2020 through a partnership with Community Concepts. Due to the pandemic, work was put on hold until early 2022. A small group of volunteer residents has renewed the interest in ensuring every household has access to the internet. Our goal is to help make high-speed internet access available to all residents of the Town of Buckfield that are currently unserved (no internet access) or underserved (poor/slow internet access), at a cost that is affordable to you.
As an example, in Oxford County, AT&T, Verizon and Charter/Spectrum have committed to offer all Affordable Connectivity Program-eligible (based on income) families at least one high-speed monthly plan (e.g., download speeds of at least 30 Mbps) for $30/month or less – some addresses have already been approved by the FCC for reduced rates. Spectrum has indicated that they will qualify eligible families for $17.99/month, plus an additional $5/month for a router – if needed – to broadcast a Wi-Fi signal to household devices. Additionally, we are working to reduce the cost to existing users while increasing internet speeds.
We want to ensure that adequate internet access is available to all residents - including students. We learned during the COVID pandemic that many students did not have the access needed to study at home with the closure of schools; we want to prevent this in future.
Additionally, more and more employees are working from home and need state-of-the-art internet access. We are working to have Buckfield become more competitive in this area.
The first step in the process is to determine what households are unserved and underserved. In order to do this, we need your help. If you currently have internet access, PLEASE TAKE THE SPEED TEST at either https://www.mainebroadbandcoalition.org/speedtesting-link OR https://www.speedtest.net/ then complete the QUESTIONAIRE. With the information that we collect (which will be treated CONFIDENTIALLY), we will be better able to determine the needs of the residents of Buckfield. TAKING THE SPEED TEST IS CRITICAL to help us determine the future need for the Town of Buckfield! (Please also complete the QUESTIONAIRE if you don’t have internet access.)
We thank you in advance for your help with this phase of our project. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or concerns you may have regarding internet access. We are here to help you!
