BIDDEFORD — When Arundel native Fletcher Kittredge returned to the area in 1994 after working in Boston for years to start a small telecommunications company in Biddeford, he was just a local boy looking for a way to work closer to home. The Harvard-schooled Kittredge thought the as-yet untapped potential of the Internet would be a way to do so. Since then, the company he founded, Great Works Internet, has grown by leaps and bounds.

Kittredge is the founder of one of the most successful Internet providers in the country. INC. magazine has recognized GWI as one of the fastest growing private companies in the country four times.

In addition to his company’s success, through Kittredge’s vision and initiative, Maine’s economic future is brighter.

GWI was instrumental in bringing forward a project that will provide affordable, high-speed Internet connectivity throughout the state. The Three Ring Binder Project, begun last year and scheduled to be complete this summer, will provide 1,100 miles of fiber optic cables that will bring high-speed broadband access to rural Maine.

“This is a brand spanking new highway that should lead to quite a bit of economic development,” said Kittredge.

When he started his company, initially named Biddeford Internet Corporation, Kittredge’s goal was to provide Internet service to the greater Biddeford area. Within a year, the company exceeded that goal and was serving 70 percent of Maine’s population with dial-up Internet access, according to the company’s website.

In 1997, it completed statewide access. This was the same year the company’s name was changed to Great Works Internet, in honor of the Great Works River that touches both Maine and New Hampshire, the company’s primary target market.

GWI now offers telephone and broadband service throughout the state, with more than 50 locations ”“ and plans to expand.

Kittredge recognizes that the growth and success of his own business is tied to the economic development around the rest of the state. That’s why when a statewide group of Internet service providers working together on a proposal for the grant to increase access to high-speed Internet in rural and under-served areas of the state fell apart, GWI stepped up to the plate, said Jeff Letourneau with the University of Maine system.

“Two weeks before the proposal was due, the loose consortium that met weekly fell apart,” he said.

GWI, with assistance from the University of Maine, decided to go ahead and filed a grant proposal for the Three Ring Binder project.

“They saw it as an opportunity to get services in parts of the state where it wasn’t available, and so there would be an opportunity to expand,” said Letourneau.

The grant was successful, and $25 million in federal funds, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was secured as well as additional private funding, bringing the total to $32 million, all being invested in high-speed fiber that will provide the middle mile in connectivity to communities off the I-95 corridor, said Phillip Lindley, executive director of the state’s ConnectME Authority. ConnectME provides grants for last mile connectivity to homes and businesses.

What’s particularly unique, said Letourneau, is that instead of hoping for a competitive advantage by owning the fiber network being built, GWI helped form a new company, Maine Fiber Company.

GWI is just another customer of Maine Fiber Company, and although it is currently the largest customer, no one provider has a competitive advantage due to fiber ownership.

In fact, said Fletcher, the completed project “should create competition that makes prices go down.”

Hopes are high for what can be accomplished once the project is complete.

“This is a game changer for us,” said Letourneau, about the impact on the University of Maine system. It terms of connectivity from classes to other needs, it will put remote campuses like Machias and Fort Kent on a level playing field with urban campuses in Portland and Bangor, he said.

Also, this high-speed connectivity is critical in terms of allowing the university to be competitive in conducting research and applying for research grants. Research is one of the university’s core missions, said Letourneau.

With the significant increase in access and speed on connectivity that will be available throughout the state with the completion of the Three Ring Binder, Maine will have a competitive advantage. The Internet will be increasingly used for business, education, telehealth and in more arenas. Both Letourneau and Kittredge believe that the potential for how people will use the Internet in the future is boundless.

“The Internet is in its infancy,” said Kittredge. “My guess is that people are going to use the Internet in new and unimagined ways,” he said.

 — Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or [email protected].