FairPoint lobbyists and officials say the University of Maine System is unfairly competing with them for federal funds available as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act "broadband stimulus" program.
“The fact is, we are competing with the University of Maine,” says Severin Beliveau, an Augusta, Maine attorney representing FairPoint. “I am concerned at what the university is proposing here, because it is receiving a form of subsidy, no, they are in fact receiving a subsidy from taxpayers, in competing with the private sector.”
Jeff Letourneau, the associate director of information technology at UMS, said the proposal is not the university’s but is from a private-public partnership and that the UMS is just one member.
FairPoint is developing a $20 million proposal that builds on its existing Internet infrastructure, the company indicates. FairPoint says the project will bring broadband access to 90 percent of Maine by 2013.
Though the first of the funds have not yet been awarded, organizations and companies now are starting to complain about the rules. FairPoint Communications, librarians and FiberNet in West Virginia are among those who have voiced complaints about the rules.
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