Dropped FaceTime calls. Crashed Zoom meetings. Online forms that time out. Photos and videos that don’t send.

That’s the reality for about 500 rural Bath homes and businesses in the northern and southern parts of the city where poor internet speeds are the norm, relying on either DSL phonelines or old cable lines. In some cases, people have resorted to Starlink, the SpaceX satellite internet network.

Those residents were left out the high-speed, fiber-optic network completed by GoNetspeed last month, which connected about 75% of the city that had been without a fiber connection. Now, those residents are banding together to build a fiber-optic network of their own.

“It’s the most important generational utility upgrade since electrification,” said Marcy Leger, founder of the Bath Fiber Optic Alliance. The organization is applying for a state grant through the Maine Connectivity Authority that would pay for the majority of the $1.6 million it would cost to build a fiber-optic network for the 500 homes and businesses with poor connections.

The grant window opens in August and would include $1.15 million for the project. Consolidated Communications, which is in talks with the alliance to build the network, would pay $350,000, and the alliance is lobbying the city to kick in $75,000. The alliance held a meeting at Bath City Hall Wednesday to gather support for the project.

Leger lives in the northern part of town and runs a health care marketing business from her home with a Starlink connection.

“Once we get this, it means faster uploads and downloads, less dropped connections,” she said. “It means people can do distance learning and remote working and telehealth.”

Kendra Jo Grindle, the community capacity manager for the connectivity authority, said while she can’t guarantee the group will get the grant, it’s mandatory to have support from public and private organizations, as the alliance has planned with the city and Consolidated Communications.

“We are going where communities are saying, ‘We need a solution,’” Grindle said. “There’s a return on investment where there’s strong community engagement.”

According to the connectivity authority, 13% of the state has sufficient access to high-speed internet, while 69% is underserved and 18% is unserved. In her inaugural address earlier this year, Gov. Janet Mills pledged that “by the end of 2024, every person in Maine who wants a good internet connection will have one.”

Leger told residents to reach out to city councilors and ask that they include the $75,000 funding request when the next budget cycle starts in April.

The connectivity authority is awarding $35 million in grants this year with coronavirus relief money included in the American Rescue Plan. The grant winners are expected to be announced in December.

Leger’s husband, Christian, urged people to reach out to their city councilors.

“The message is not going to get any louder if it’s only me and Marcy,” he said. “We have to make a case to the city that it’s something they have to pay attention to. … It has to be on the budget cycle.”

He said the price of the project will only increase if it gets delayed.

“The cost to erase the digital divide that we’re finding ourselves in will only get more expensive,” he said. “Prices are going to go up for labor and material, and there’s going to be more competition to get after those funds.”

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