Boothbay Harbor’s broadband committee is looking for input from residents and homeowners on their needs and wants, Chair Tricia Warren said Nov. 2. Last winter and spring, while Casco Bay Advisors did a broadband inventory study, Lincolnville Communications (LCI), Consolidated Communications (CCI) and Spectrum presented the committee with their coverage across town and potential projects.

“Now that we've gotten the Casco Bay Advisors report out and done the inventory, we're just going to go back and see, before we gather information for an RFP, what our scope of work would be,” Town Manager Julia Latter said in a followup interview.

Now that the committee has a grasp on providers’ presence and services, it wants to know what the public expects, said Latter. Members Mike McBride and Ken Rayle noted speculation has ranged from a great desire for fiber to the premises, as LCI presented, or simply filling out the small areas no provider has covered, as Spectrum suggested.

Warren suggested modeling a survey on Bar Harbor's 2015 survey which also gauged the importance of a more robust network. The committee boiled its first draft of questions down to five with Warren and Latter adding one more in an email to committee members summarizing what will appear before selectmen Nov. 9: identifying the surveyed as a resident, business owner, retiree, or student; gauging public knowledge about the committee and its study into increasing broadband access; gauging desire for faster internet; determining the importance of streaming services like Hulu and Netflix; determining reasons for greater internet access such as work, school, telemedicine and gaming; and whether or not consumers are willing to pay more for better service.

Once selectmen review the questions and greenlight the survey, it will go on the town website and be available in hard copy at the town office, said Latter. “Then the next meeting Trish is going to see if LCI will come to give a brief research overview on Boothbay Harbor and its needs.”

Latter said she has also reached out to the other providers, but has not yet heard back from Spectrum. “That's what I'll be working on over the next few weeks, trying to get somebody from Spectrum to come talk to us to actually look at what we have in place already.”