by Lura Jackson, Quoddy Tides. Originally published September 13, 2024
Amidst the grilled salmon dinners during the Eastport Salmon and Seafood Festival on September 1, a major step toward the community’ s future was marked when representatives from Fidium Fiber and local officials met to hold a ribbon-cutting symbolizing new access to multi-gigabyte Internet service.
Over the past few months, Fidium has been building a multi-gigabit Passive Optical Network that will enable residents of Eastport, Sipayik and parts of Perry to tap into Internet speeds of up to 2GB. The fiber network is symmetrical, meaning residents will have access to high-speed downloads and uploads.
During the brief ceremony, Simon Thorne of Fidium recognized the efforts of Ken Burke and the Eastport Fiber Connectivity Committee for being “tireless advocates for this community in the broadband space in trying to bridge the digital divide.” Elaine Abbott of the Sunrise County Economic Council was also recognized for her work in helping to bring high speed Internet to Eastport as well as to the communities of Vanceboro, Lambert Lake, Waite, Talmadge, Kossuth and Topsfield.
The expanded fiber network is key to “moving this region out of the dark ages and into the next century with future proof technology,” Thorne said.
The Eastport build-out will be completed by mid-October, with individual sec- tions of the network coming online as they are ready. Once completed, approximately 2,100 homes in the region will have access to the network.