GWI, the telco that brought Google Fiber to Orono, ME, is suing Maine Fiber Co. for misuse of federal grant money for statewide fiber

[Grave]

http://bangordailynews.com/2014/01/13/business/gwi-sues-maine-fiber-alleges-misuse-of-federal-funds-intended-for-statewide-broadband-expansion/ - Full article

http://www.gwi.net/policy/news/notice-customers-regarding-recent-filing-maine-courts/ - GWI mentions it on their site

I do have access to GWI here in case Time Warner/Comcast goes to shit, but my friend had a bad experience with them and I find TWC to be far more reliable than them. However, that was like 7 years ago and Time Warner has degraded over the past 5 months heavily, let alone in those 7 years. Prices went up, my net speed is going down and they still cannot offer higher than 15mbps/1mbps bcable where I am. I hadn't found any information on their expansion past Orono, Maine's university, let alone anywhere else in Maine, until just now. I would definitely throw my money at them for fiber, even if I had to move because I live in the outskirts of central Maine, close to nowhere and really can't get good internet. However, finding out that I have a decent chance to get gigabit internet in this way is depressing/disgusting/making me hate big telco companies. Read article and/or what I say after for explanation.

Great Works Internet, commonly known as GWI, filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing Maine Fiber Co., its CEO Dwight Allison and investor Robert Monks Jr. of misusing federal stimulus funds intended to expand high-speed broadband access in rural Maine. At issue is what’s known as the Three Ring Binder project, a statewide fiber-optic backbone that Maine Fiber built with the help of $25.6 million in federal stimulus funds.

Maine Fiber Co. has not followed through — to the extent laid out in the federal grant application — on its promise to use those funds to expand broadband access in rural Maine, Fletcher Kittredge, CEO of Biddeford-based GWI, said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

While the misuse of federal funds is a serious allegation, Kittredge said that as far as he knows, no federal agency is currently investigating Maine Fiber Co. GWI’s lawsuit is a civil case to settle a contractual dispute. GWI was the original applicant for the $25.6 million in federal stimulus funds, which were awarded in December 2009 and required a private match of $6.2 million. However, one of the stipulations in the grant application was that the resulting fiber network would be carrier-neutral, meaning it would not be controlled by one company. So GWI signed over the grant funds in January 2010 to the newly created Maine Fiber Co. to complete and manage the project. The project has “gone off the track” since its transfer to Maine Fiber, Kittredge said.

The project has “gone off the track” since its transfer to Maine Fiber, Kittredge said.

Among the changes to the project Kittredge takes issue with is that it was expanded south to Boston, which he said cost money that should have been spent helping connect rural communities to the network. “The purpose of the Three Ring Binder project is to help Maine people. No part of the project’s focus was intended to benefit financial firms in New York City to the detriment of Maine people,” Kittredge said. “Certainly it was not part of GWI’s application to the federal government, but that is what I believe happened.”

Allison, CEO of Maine Fiber Co., said Maine Fiber has been having payment problems with GWI for the last 18 months. GWI is contracted to pay Maine Fiber for the ability to lease fiber on the Three Ring Binder network. Kittredge said those payments are tied to whether the project is complete, which he argues it isn’t.

The dispute is over whether the project is “substantially complete,” according to Lauri Boxer-Macomber, an attorney at Kelly, Remmel and Zimmerman who is representing GWI. While Maine Fiber claims it is, Kittredge claims it is not because it did not provide enough access points along its network where regional companies would be able to tap into the fiber backbone and connect rural communities.

The two companies have been in mediation over the payment issue, Allison said. He said the next mediation meeting is scheduled in two weeks. He would not comment on whether that meeting would go forward. Maine Fiber Co. and the other defendants have 20 days after being served with the lawsuit to respond, according to Boxer-Macomber.

So basically, the alleged misuse of federal grant money by expanding to Boston has delayed residential and statewide gigabit internet by 1.5 years and counting. They (Maine Fiber) are probably selling bandwidth to TWC and/or Comcast for good money, and keeps the two big guys' pockets filled by cutting out GWI on the residential access. At least that's what I'm assuming since it's "substantially complete", according to Captain Nimrod CEO of Maine Fiber Co. The fact that Maine has been pushing for fiber since even before 2010 and still hasn't got it set up to the majority/any residential addresses with this "completed" is bullshit. It sounds shady as hell and I'm backing GWI on this even if the article really doesn't tell me a whole lot.

And the worst part is that despite this statewide gigabit network being "completed", we're still ranked 40th overall in broadband speed/access/quality out of the 50 states as of 2013 surveys. Apparently because of that, business flees to Vermont, NY and such for better broadband access. We have fiber laid out everywhere but have barely any access to it, if any. I'm waiting for more news to come out on it, really hoping the gov't steps in once they finish the contractual dispute case if it leans in favor of GWI.

[Askew]

Such Doge.

 

Serously though, the US has such petty issues when it comes to the infastructure and behaviour of the telcos.

[rreinke]

Ohhh TWC and Comcast such terrible companies.

[Kev]

I have GWI.