BIDDEFORD — Maine is receiving national attention it doesn't necessarily want: a terrible review of the poor quality of Internet services available in the state, and as a result, serious questions about the state's economic future.

Bloomberg Television published a report today (http://bloom.bg/1qb8Rx7) entitled, "Maine's Big Problem: Why Is Internet Service So Bad?" To tee up the story on its web site, Bloomberg TV wrote, "If being online is the future of business, what future does a business have if it can't get online? That's the billion-dollar question in the state of Maine, where Internet service is among the worst in the nation."

The report itself is unvarnished, bluntly stating that for four consecutive years, Forbes magazine has rated Maine the worst state in the nation in which to do business. The stark analysis came as no surprise to Fletcher Kittredge, CEO of GWI, a Maine-owned Internet service provider.

"This is the reputation with which Maine will be stuck," Kittredge said, "unless our business and political leaders mobilize and reverse our downward trend. Ten years ago we were a national leader in access to, and quality of, Internet services. Today we are forty-ninth out of fifty, and sinking fast."

Last month GWI tackled the problem head on, when Kittredge released a position paper outlining "10 Recommendations for Improving Maine's Inferior Broadband Standing."

The paper explained that current public policies may doom the state to a difficult economic future. Equally as blunt as the Bloomberg report, the position paper explains that governmental telecommunications policies and prevailing market forces threaten to eventually reduce Maine to an economic afterthought. Kittredge wrote that if Maine has superior broadband, its physical location far away from the nation's commercial centers doesn't matter, and even gives the state a competitive advantage in some cases. But if broadband services continue to fall behind, unfavorable geography will exact an increasing toll on Maine's economy.

"Think of (geographical barriers) as a rural tax," writes Kittredge, "Every advance in telecommunications effectively shrinks distances, allows rural areas to participate more fully in the economy and lowers costs of delivering services. Upgrading Maine's Internet infrastructure is a way of reducing the rural tax and makes it possible for Maine to exceed rather than trail the national average for economic growth."

Links

* "Maine's Big Problem: Why Is Internet Service So Bad?", Bloomberg Television, http://bloom.bg/1qb8Rx7

* Susan Crawford column, Bloomberg View, "How Maine Saved the Internet," http://bv.ms/1miD3Ru

* Op-Ed, "Should the Internet Be Like the Public Library?," Truth-Out.org, http://bit.ly/1n6L4Jz

* "10 Recommendations for Improving Maine's Inferior Broadband Standing," by Fletcher Kittredge, http://bit.ly/1u0sIAd

* "Five minutes with Fletcher Kittredge," MCED Connect, http://bit.ly/1nWjT4v

About GWI

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Biddeford, GWI is a Maine owned and operated company, and an advocate for the expansion of high speed Internet access in the state. The company has been named one of Inc. Magazine's fastest growing private companies in America five times. In 2011, CEO Fletcher Kittredge was named Maine's Business Leader of The Year by the state's leading business publication, MaineBiz.

For more information or to speak with GWI leadership, visit www.gwi.net, or contact Mark Robinson at press@gwi.net or (207) 332-3798.