BUCKFIELD — A partnership of local and regional organizations is holding a public meeting in Buckfield on Wednesday, March 8, to help mobilize citizen action to expand the accessibility and availability of broadband internet in Oxford County.
This meeting, which is part of a series of workshops, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the cafeteria at Buckfield Junior-Senior High School, 160 Morrill St.
Many innovative technologies require the faster connections that broadband offers. The bandwidth capacity and requirements for broadband will soon edge out traditional DSL networks, raising questions that will be discussed at the Buckfield meeting, such as, “What role should broadband play in the area’s future, and what is needed to ensure that we have greater and more reliable capacity for internet traffic?”
Currently, Oxford County falls behind national and state averages for the number of homes and businesses with Internet service. Download and upload speeds are also below average for Maine and nationally.
The series of meetings will educate residents and businesses on the current situation with regard to Internet access and usage in Oxford County. The meetings seek input from residents and business owners on how existing service meets their needs and what role broadband should play in the area’s future.
The public meetings will help lay the foundation for a grant application aimed at providing funds to expand broadband availability and Internet accessibility in the Bethel area, River Valley and Oxford Hills.
The effort to expand broadband in Oxford County is being spearheaded by Maine West, a collaboration of local and regional organizations dedicated to addressing systemic rural challenges. Local partners include Community Concepts Finance Corp., Oxford County Wellness Collaborative, Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce, Mahoosuc Pathways, Bethel Area Nonprofit Collaborative, Mahoosuc Land Trust, University Centers at Rumford and Norway-South Paris, Bryant Pond 4-H Camp, and Western Foothills Land Trust.
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