SANFORD — A new, high-speed broadband system designed with business attraction, growth and retention in mind has the potential to inject between $47 million and $192 million to Sanford’s economy over the next decade.

That’s the nutshell from a recent study that goes on to say that communities that don’t have or get high-speed broadband will be left behind. That is because industry requires faster downloading speeds able to handle vast amounts of information than the average household. In short, when you hit the send or download button, the transaction has to be essentially instantaneous.

That is the word from a study by Tilson Technology Management, commissioned by the Sanford Regional Economic Growth Council earlier this year.

The study laid out three types of broadband ”“ good, better and best ”“ and estimates of the cost to build them: $362,000 for the “good” option; $546,000, better; and $961,000, best.

The city council gave an informal nod for the city to pursue next steps at a recent workshop, aimed at the “best” option. Once all the details are worked out, the package will come back to the council for approval.

Broadband, proponents say, is an essential tool to attract business and industry from the Route 128 Massachusetts corridor and beyond.

According to City Manager Steve Buck, the city is looking at ways to finance construction of the network that it would own and control, with operation in the hands of a third party. The city has approached the federal Economic Development Administration for grant funding, and plans to seek funding from the Maine School and Libraries Network, Department of Homeland Security and private businesses, which may contribute in exchange for reduced cost of access to the system. As well, the city would likely seek a bond for the remainder, with payback to come from lease revenues. According to Buck, the network would remain controlled by the city as open access, allowing for competition.

Deputy Mayor Maura Herlihy said, in general, the council is supportive of the plan.

“We know without the upgrade, businesses won’t look at this community because broadband is a basic necessity of life for business and economic development,” she said.

Herlihy said one of the next steps is to fine-tune how the new system is financed.

“A lot of people want to make sure it doesn’t come out of the property tax,” said Herlihy, who went on to say the proposal currently being eyed would also provide the city with an annual revenue stream.

The growth council’s executive director, Jim Nimon, released a summary of the report and discussed it in a recent newsletter, but did not respond to two messages seeking comment.

Nimon, in the summary, explained the difference between standard Internet and the high-speed variety: Standard Internet with speeds of 756 kilobits per second can download a low resolution photo in about three seconds, he wrote. Broadband, however, operating at speeds of 10 gigabits per second, can download a feature Hollywood film in half a second.

Buck used a personal story to illustrate how existing businesses are also hampered by the lack of high-speed broadband. Buck had an MRI at a local medical facility and it needed to go to a medical provider, but the medical facility couldn’t send the high-resolution image to his medical provider electronically because it didn’t have the speed and capacity to do so. The facility burned a disk of the test, and Buck hand-carried it to his medical provider.

As matters currently stand, there are three existing networks in the city: one, Oxford, has a long-distance cable but no “off ramps,” where businesses can connect, and two others, FairPoint and Metrocast, have networks that only support their reduced copper or cable networks, said Buck.

As well, the Three Ring Binder, which was designed to expand broadband capability, largely in rural Maine, skirted some parts of western York County, like Sanford. Buck, who was city manager in Maine’s northernmost city, Caribou at the time, said the system was about to bypass that city, too, but Caribou was nimble, “and jumped on it,” Buck said.

The city has identified 90 anchor institutions, and Nimon, in the growth council newsletter, said he’s already heard from one company president who supports the initiative.

“He believes it will permit him to return an IT division and 30-plus jobs to Sanford, and sees great benefits to attract gen Y and millennials with better technology,” Nimon wrote.

The growth council sought the opinion of former Maine economist Charlie Colgan, now chairman of the community planning and development program at the Muskie School of Public Service of the University of Southern Maine.

“Sanford needs broadband to catch up to what (the study) implies is possible, and where broadband is deployed, plus its quality and price, will be the key to doing that,” Nimon quoted Colgan as saying. “Their ”˜best’ option is the one to shoot for if economic development is the goal.”

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.