Budget includes $3M request for broadband use
After years of pushing for increased Internet bandwidth,
the state's university system and research institutions
in Hancock and Penobscot counties could find themselves
moving into the passing lane on the information
superhighway if a proposal contained in Gov. John
Baldacci's emergency supplemental budget bill is
approved by the Legislature.
Included in the bill, which is expected to be reviewed
by legislative committees next week, is a request
for $3 million that would help create a regional
optical network with unused or "dark"
fiber-optic cables in Maine. An added $1.9 million
would be contributed to the effort by The Jackson
Laboratory in Bar Harbor, which has been trying
to significantly increase its broadband access capacity
for the past couple of years.
Bar Harbor's Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory,
Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health in
Brewer, University of Southern Maine in Portland,
and UMaine's Center for Cooperative Aquaculture
Research in Franklin are other institutions that
would benefit from the project.
According to the proposal, $3.3 million of the
$4.9 million total would be spent on 20-year leases
on dark fiber-optic cable already linked between
Ellsworth, Bangor, Portland and Cambridge, Mass.,
where several research universities are connected
into a meganetwork called Internet 2. Of the remaining
requested funds, $800,000 would be spent to install
additional fiber-optic cable between Bar Harbor
and Ellsworth, and another $800,000 would be used
to purchase and install the networking equipment
that would light up the fiber-optic cables and make
them work.
Jake Ward, University of Maine's assistant vice
president for research and economic development,
said Friday that the proposal is included in the
emergency appropriations bill because there is a
limited window of opportunity in which the university
system can secure the leases with telecommunications
companies that own the fiber. Also, the institutions
that would benefit want to be able to have the fiber
lit and operating as soon as possible.
The University of Maine already is working on increasing
its Internet bandwidth between Orono and Bangor,
Ward said, and at some points the existing network
that flows south to Massachusetts stands to gain
50 times its present capacity if the appropriation
goes through. He said the project would give the
Maine institutions roughly the same degree of bandwidth
that exists now at Harvard, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and other universities in southern
New England.
"Our existing network is below capacity,"
Ward said. "Overall, our speeds will be comparable
to what those other institutions have."
Gov. John Baldacci on Friday said the proposal
is an "important component" of strengthening
Maine's high-tech and biotech industries and helping
them compete in the emerging global marketplace.
"To achieve that kind of development, Maine
needs to extend the information superhighway,"
Baldacci said. "It's about jobs, and it's about
growing our economy."
Ward said the appropriation should provide value
to Maine far beyond the $4.9 million cost of the
project. The role of fiber-optic cable in broadband
networks is not expected to change anytime soon,
he said.
"I think we're getting a great deal,"
Ward said.
At Jackson Lab, researchers have been trying to
find a way to address their broadband capacity needs
since 2005, when the lab acquired a new high-powered
electron microscope. The microscope can generate
up to 8 trillion bits of data in a day, which with
the lab's current capacity would take about two
or three days of continuous transmission to upload
onto the Internet.
Jackson Lab -- which employs 1,300 people, making
it one of the largest employers in eastern Maine
-- now spends several thousand dollars each month
for its current copper-wire connection, which has
a broadband capacity many times less than that of
fiber-optic cable. That rate is multiple times more
expensive than what a comparable connection would
cost if the lab were located in the Boston area,
lab officials have said.
Jill Goldthwait, the lab's director of government
relations, said Sunday that the lab must boost its
broadband capacity significantly if it is to collaborate
and compete with other genetics research institutions
worldwide. By helping to establish the network now,
she said, it can acquire the access it will need
for the foreseeable future and can help provide
a way for other Maine academic and research institutions
to boost their Internet access.
"This is a huge part of the solution because
we'll be acquiring more [capacity] than we need,"
Goldthwait said. "I wouldn't call anything
a final fix because it's difficult to predict what
you're going to need."
Scott McNeil, the lab's chief information officer,
said Sunday that if the proposed network ever comes
close to being maxed out, its capacity could be
quadrupled with an upgrade of the equipment the
network partners will acquire to light the fiber
and operate the system.
"It means we can really level the playing
field with the rest of the institutions throughout
the country," he said. "This is going
to put Maine on the map. We need these things now."
The proposal for dedicating $3 million in state
funds toward the project will be the subject of
a public hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday,
Jan. 23, in Augusta. The Legislature's joint committees
for appropriations and for education and cultural
affairs will discuss the project in Room 228 of
the State House.
