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Maine Seeks to Expand Broadband to Underserved Communities
Advocates say members of Maine's deaf and hard-of-hearing community often lack adequate access to the kind of broadband services they need.
Consumers advocates, utility regulators and representatives from the telecom industry gathered in Portland this morning for a two-day meeting with members of Maine's deaf and hard-of-hearing community to discuss how efforts to expand broadband access in the state will address their needs.
Currently about 90 percent of Maine's population has access to the high-speed Internet service known as broadband. Rolling out the service to those underserved communities is the challenge ahead, says Wayne Jortner, special counsel at Maine's Office of the Public Advocate.
Among those underserved communities, he says, are Maine's deaf people, whose needs are often not fully met, even if they do have Internet access.
"They need a certain amount of bandwidth so if they want to do American sign language with smooth, full-motion video using broadband, they don't need just any broadband, they need broadband that can support that smooth, full-motion video," Jortner says.
Under the National broadband plan the federal government calls for broadband services to reach 100 million homes by 2020.
Advocates say members of Maine's deaf and hard-of-hearing community often lack adequate access to the kind of broadband services they need.
Consumers advocates, utility regulators and representatives from the telecom industry gathered in Portland this morning for a two-day meeting with members of Maine's deaf and hard-of-hearing community to discuss how efforts to expand broadband access in the state will address their needs.
Currently about 90 percent of Maine's population has access to the high-speed Internet service known as broadband. Rolling out the service to those underserved communities is the challenge ahead, says Wayne Jortner, special counsel at Maine's Office of the Public Advocate.
Among those underserved communities, he says, are Maine's deaf people, whose needs are often not fully met, even if they do have Internet access.
"They need a certain amount of bandwidth so if they want to do American sign language with smooth, full-motion video using broadband, they don't need just any broadband, they need broadband that can support that smooth, full-motion video," Jortner says.
Under the National broadband plan the federal government calls for broadband services to reach 100 million homes by 2020.