Click here for the latest coronavirus news, which the BDN has made free for the public. You can support our critical reporting on the coronavirus by purchasing a digital subscription or donating directly to the newsroom.
With tens of thousands of Mainers working from home and thousands of students also at home and logged into devices, parts of the state are seeing a slowdown of internet service and, in some cases, failure.
Jeff Letourneau, who monitors Maine’s internet as executive director of Networkmaine at the University of Maine System, said there are parts of the state that simply don’t have the capacity to handle the increased demand on home internet connections.
“We are seeing so many things that require internet connectivity that’s just not available to a big portion of the state,” he said
[Internet slowdowns expected as more Mainers work from home amid coronavirus outbreak]
Letourneau said the significant upgrades needed will take time and money, but he said that internet service providers could help right away by increasing the speed of their existing systems.
“Some of it is just driven by the slow speed of the connections at some locations in the state that don’t keep up well,” he said.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.