Maine wraps up construction of the Three Ring Binder middle mile network

The Maine Fiber Company on Friday announced that it completed construction on the 1,100 mile Three Ring Binder (3RB) middle mile network.

Following early protests by the state's main incumbent provider FairPoint Communications (Nasdaq: FRP), Maine Fiber Company said the 3RB network will be able to extend broadband services to 110,000 households and 600 community anchor institutions throughout Maine.

Jeff McCarthy, Vice President of Business Development for the Maine Fiber Company, said that even though they just completed network construction, 12 customers are already leasing fiber on the network and it has another 29 contracts under consideration.

Among the early customers of the network are GWI, Oxford Networks and Pioneer Broadband.

Fletcher Kittredge, CEO of GWI--which is building what it calls its "Gigabit Main Street" fiber networks in Old Town and Orono--said that the "The Three Ring Binder has already helped GWI expand high-speed Internet service to eight communities across the state."

In order to help its growing business customer base with their expansions, GWI, one of the lead sponsors of the Three Ring Binder middle mile network has established a connection into Boston and New York through a relationship with Sidera Networks.

Likewise, Oxford Networks said that not only has the 3RB allowed customers to get access over both its own fiber network and a separate fiber network, but it has enabled it to reach customers in more remote areas.

Echoing a similar theme as GWI and Oxford, Pioneer CEO Tim McAfee said that with the 3RB network they "have already connected unserved or underserved communities in Aroostook and Washington counties."

Besides GWI, Oxford, and Pioneer, the new network is being used for two other key purposes: wireless backhaul and connecting community anchor institutions such as schools, government buildings and hospitals.

While not revealing any customer names, Maine Fiber said that a number of wireless operators are using the network for backhauling both 3G and 4G wireless services in rural parts of the state. At the same time, 100 community anchor institutions will now have direct optical connections to the network and 80 are already connected.

Maine Fiber Company 3 Ring Binder network

For more:
- see the release

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