Maine families without internet worry about upcoming school year

LYMAN (WGME) -- Most K-12 students in southern Maine will soon be at school two days a week, and learning from home three days a week, but what about families with no internet?

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Families on both ends of Walker Road in Lyman get cable and internet from Charter Communications through its Spectrum brand, but there are 16 homes in the middle of Walker Road, where the cable line stops.

Their only internet service is through their cell phones.

Dianna Sharon's three children will soon be back in school five days a week in the Massabesic School District.

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"How long will it last?” Sharon said. “We want to be prepared for when the schools do shutdown."

She says internet service is now a necessity, and Spectrum is their only hope.

"Every time we contact them, we get the answer of you need to pay for the line to be installed,” Sharon said. “Which for us, they quote us $10,000. That's not something we're willing to pay."

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The Tarpe family lives three houses down. Their quote from Spectrum to was $56,000.

“It doesn't cost $56,000 to run a line from where it stops a half a mile that way to get here," Justin Tarpe said. "It makes no sense."

"Why does it cost so much?" Sharon said.

Families here have no idea why Charter Communications is charging so much to extend the cable lines 8/10ths of a mile, especially when they'd be gaining 16 customers. They looked into a private company to extend the lines, but Charter Communications no longer allows that.

"They don't allow anybody else except for them to run the lines," Justin Tarpe said.

In May, Governor Janet Mills announced the state had secured internet access to facilitate home learning for 100 percent of Maine schoolchildren who reported a need.

It didn't include Walker Road.

"When we heard she as doing that, we called Spectrum right away, and they're like, 'Oh, sorry,’" Paige Tarpe said. "You already have to be in our service area. And it's like, ‘OK, there goes that. It's just another dead end.’"

“We've gotten nowhere. It's very frustrating," Sharon said. "Nobody will give us answers."

CBS 13 told the Mills administration about Walker Road.

In a statement, the Department of Economic and Community Development says, "Access to high-speed internet is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. A $15 million bond, approved by voters, will help expand access in Maine."

Mainers pass bond to expand high-speed internet in rural areas

CBS 13 also reached out to Charter Communications to ask why it costs so much to install a line.

We were told, "This area requires a total of three miles in additional infrastructure. This involves time and cost because we don't own the poles. It's not as simple as us deciding to string wires."

That is not what families want to hear.