As one of the principals of Franklin County’s Rural Broadband Initiative, I was naturally very pleased with the governor’s announcement during his State of the State address of his goal to make high-speed Internet access available in 90 percent of the state by 2010.

We believe that the greater availability of industrial-strength data and telecommunications services are the linchpin of Maine’s continued recovery and of its efforts to reverse the “brain drain” whereby so many of Maine’s college graduates have departed for other states.

High-speed Internet access (also called broadband) surpasses conventional dial-up access by enabling a broad new class of powerful technologies and techniques that are otherwise impossible, including e-commerce, interactive distance education, voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP, a potentially revolutionary way to make inexpensive phone calls via the Internet), teleconferencing and telemedicine, audiovisual streaming, real-time business applications, electronic security and a host of others. If we can place Maine on a equal or even superior footing technologically relative to other states, we will be that much more attractive to investors and new incoming businesses.

One of the most valuable features of broadband Internet access is the fact that it gives even the smallest, most remotely located business immediate access to national and international markets. The effect has already been transformative and will only grow as Maine advances into the 21st century. Maine businesses will not remain competitive if these technologies continue to lag behind in our state.

There are several steps the state government can take in service to this goal. As a first step, it can offer tax incentives to businesses that initiate new high-speed data services in underserved areas. Then it can expand the Pine Tree Zones concept to encompass more of Maine’s rural communities. The state must also provide more funding for such institutions as the Maine Technology Institute in Gardiner, which administers several excellent programs supporting business innovation here.

Our congressional delegation has done a good job of advocating for Maine on the subject of high-speed Internet access, and we would like them to take it up another notch or two by insisting that the federal government do more to help Maine achieve greater access to broadband. With the help of the new FCC chairperson that will be appointed soon, they should seek to soften the monopoly held by the big telecommunications companies over the choicest wireless frequencies, opening up opportunities for smaller carriers. We would like federal grant monies to flow to Maine for nonprofit and for-profit projects that enhance the state’s overall technological competitiveness.

The governor has correctly sensed that the future of Maine’s educational system rests in large part on its technological infrastructure and its ability to teach technology to the state’s young students. The Maine Laptop Initiative, which gives an Apple iBook to most middle-school students and soon some high-schoolers as well, is an example of a successful program that ought to be continued. Thankfully, most of the schools in Maine already have high-speed Internet access; the problem is, most of the kids go home to painfully slow dial-up connections. It’s a real letdown, a drag on their achievement and on the quality of their homework. Without broadband, Maine kids are left at a growing disadvantage vis–vis other students, and we cannot allow that to continue.

Ultimately, if the governor is to achieve his ambitious goal of 90 percent penetration of broadband in Maine in just five years, he will need more than a more favorable state government policy, as welcome as that will be.

He will also need the close cooperation of industry, local and federal government, the nonprofit sector, the school systems and concerned residents. In times where many difficult budget decisions need to be made, we should embrace those policies with a high bang-to-buck to ratio, programs that for a relatively modest investment produce disproportionately powerful results. We must rally to the side of the governor and make this critical objective a reality. Join us, and let us move this crucial initiative forward.

Sam Elowitch is a co-founder of the Rural Broadband Initiative. He lives in Farmington and can be reached at [email protected].