AUBURN — A Camden-based company focused on bringing household Internet to most of Maine within three years expanded into Auburn on Thursday.
“Today, we will cover 25 percent of Maine households and that’s just this year alone,” Redzone Wireless President and Chief Executive Officer Jim McKenna said. “We really just started our effort in May of this year.”
The company officially kicked off its high-speed wireless Internet service with a news conference at Auburn Hall.
Company Vice President Michael Forcillo said the company turned on its 4G LTE antenna earlier this week on the cell tower near the Park and Court streets intersection.
Customers who pay the company $39 a month get a combination modem and Wi-Fi router that picks up the LTE signal from the company’s antenna and connects household gadgets including computers, printers, gaming systems and on-demand Internet television systems such as Roku and Apple TV.
Forcillo said the service will offer 25 megabit download speeds to customers, easily comparable to the speeds available from wired Internet service providers.
“This is as great rural solution in that it is about 5 percent of the cost of wired technology,” Forcillo said. “We don’t have to put in infrastructure, like wires to poles or to houses. Fundamentally, it’s a much more cost-effective solution.”
McKenna said the service is available to both private and business customers.
Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said the company was welcome and compared it to last week’s announcement of Concord Coach Lines’ bus service coming to Auburn.
“It shows how important it is for Auburn to grow its economy to be connected to the centers of economic activity,” LaBonte said. “It’s fitting that today we are announcing another form of private investment that is trying to grow the economy to connect people.”
The company offers service in Portland, Westbrook, Waterville, Augusta, Camden and Rockland.
“By the end of the year, we will have 15 communities where we have service activated,” Forcillo said.
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