Southport selectmen have agreed to a contract with Axiom Technologies, LLC of Machias for the design, build-out and operation of a town-wide fiber-to-the-premises broadband network.

“We are super excited and very pleased to be working with the town of Southport,” said Axiom President and CEO Mark Ouellette. “Southport has done a great job communicating with the community at large and working hard on the due diligence. Southport’s a forward-looking town whose leadership has helped to create a broad understanding across the community.”

Over the next six months, Axiom and Southport will work together to create the construction timetable and submit the “pole licensing application, which will allow us to install the cables,” Ouellette said. The application process can take as long as six months, said Ouellette, but during that time Axiom will be preparing equipment and schedules and accepting pre-subscription service applications from the people of Southport.

“As soon as the poles are ‘make ready,’ we can get on with the installation.”

Ouellette anticipates sending out subscription applications before the end of the summer and hopes to have “world-class internet on Southport in about 12 to 14 months from today.”

Speaking on behalf of the Southport Community Broadband Committee, Nancy Prisk said, “Axiom’s approach is to build relationships within the communities they serve. They’ve already proven that they have the ability to listen and engage in community conversations in order to better understand a community’s current and future needs. We are thrilled that the Select Board has voted to engage Axiom as our town’s internet service provider. The committee is looking forward to working with the select board, the community and Axiom to keep everyone informed of progress.”

Selectman Smith Climo said, “We are really happy to be moving on to the next stage of this project and believe that Axiom is a good fit for the town of Southport. We are bringing together the funding to pay for the first stage without raising taxes and we’re fully confident that by the time this comes to completion, we won’t need to raise taxes for any of it.”

There is still much to do, but Southport has taken one more step towards a generational system that should provide the town with exemplary internet, said Ouellette. “This really is an exciting time for Southport. In a little over a year the town will have better internet than Portland, better than New York City.”