The town of Orono, in partnership with Old Town and the University of Maine, is aiming to install fiber-optic infrastructure into what is known as the “tech park” district on Godfrey Drive. It is estimated that the pilot project could cost the town $25,000 to $30,000 and could potentially attract a host of businesses to the area.

With fiber-optic infrastructure, businesses in the area would be able to utilize 1 GB-per-second internet, which is roughly a hundred times faster than the fastest broadband currently offered in the state.

“We tried to be the first on the map [with fiber-optics], but there were too many obstacles. Now we have the opportunity to do something,” said Orono Town Manager Sophie Wilson at last Monday’s Economic Development Committee meeting, where the opportunity was presented.

In early 2012, the town was in talks with Old Town and Maine broadband service provider GWI about connecting the towns and the University of Maine to the Three Ring Binder, an 1,100-mile long highway of fiber optic infrastructure that passes underneath Bennoch Road. In order to take advantage of the opportunity, the towns planned on coming together in a collaborative called Old Town-Orono Fiber (OTO Fiber) and applied for grant funding to go through with the project.

Although they weren’t able to receive the necessary funds in 2012, the town is in a better position this time around.

Assistant Town Manager Belle Ryder announced on Monday that the town is to receive a $125,000 grant from ConnectME Authority, a government agency focused on developing better internet connectivity in the state’s lower population areas. However, the grant was made under the condition that the town would also receive a matching grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission.

With the grant money, the town hopes to follow through with a pilot project in the tech park, where Eastern Maine Health and other businesses have expressed interest in moving to the area on the basis of gigabit internet being available. Currently, there are no fiber-optic connections in any of the buildings in the district.

Although OTO Fiber won’t receive the whole grant at this point, Wilson and Ryder are optimistic about the project and believe that the potential of gigabit Internet will draw interest from Old Town, as well as businesses, to contribute to the project.

Eastern Maine Health has already signed a 5-year lease for one of the vacant buildings on Godfrey Dr. while another is expressing interest based on the success of the pilot project. According to Town Planner Evan Richert, this could potentially bring 150 new jobs to the area.

“It’s going to fill two buildings that have been vacant for two to three [or more] years and which have had quite a drag on the impression of our vitality [as a town],” Richert said.

“It’s also dragging the valuation down at the tech park, part of that $4 million loss in value [reported for fiscal year ‘14] was directly related to lack of rented space out there,” Wilson said.

By partnering with Maine Fiber Co., the hope is that OTO Fiber can lease fibers to various businesses who would then pay for a third party internet provider like GWI to provide gigabit internet, allowing the town to control the resource.

The project would involve constructing fiber lines that branch out from the portion of the Three Ring Binder underneath Bennoch Road and extend along the curb on Godfrey Drive. Businesses would then have to pay for additional lines to be connected from their buildings to the curbside fiber line.

“The intent is for us to provide an infrastructure, like a road or a waterline,” Ryder said.

“Controlling those fibers gives us the ability to provide a service or deliver a service with some negotiating power,” Richert said.

Orono and Old Town have also sought input from Networkmaine, the University of Maine System’s office on high-speed Internet connectivity, on the incorporation of gigabit Internet through fiber optic infrastructure. Because of the university’s presence in the community, Ryder hopes that the university will come to the table and be a part of the multi-town effort to bring gigabit internet to the area.

“We’re in hopes that when we form OTO Fiber, [the university] will be a party in that agreement,” Ryder said. “It’s in all our best interest.”