The state will take public comment on Vermont’s draft Telecommunications Plan Aug. 25 through Aug. 28 at four locations around the state.
The Telecommunications Plan is a 10-year policy roadmap for meeting state government’s goals of providing stable and predictable rates for telecom services within a technologically advanced network that reaches all areas of the state.
The plan sets a course for the state’s current and future Internet needs, voice and video markets, and the government’s own telecommunications systems.
Public hearings are required by law. A legislative hearing with joint committees of the General Assembly also is required. It’s unlikely the Sept. 1 deadline for plan adoption will be met, however, because a required legislative committee hearing is not yet set.
Once the plan is finalized, it will be the basis for the state’s telecommunications buildout over the next decade. Three-year interim reviews also are required. Vermont’s telecom plan was last revised in 2004, and subsequent three-year updates required by statute were not delivered, though a broadband-specific update was released in 2011.
In 2013, Gov. Peter Shumlin declared he met his election promise to deliver high speed Internet access by the end of that year.
About 3,000 addresses around the state lacked connectivity at the time of Shumlin’s announcement. According to DPS reporting to the state, service for roughly 25 percent of addresses are below the federal and state objectives of 4 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speed.
In May, lawmakers agreed to set 100 Mbps upload and download speeds as the state’s objective for 2024.
But Jim Porter, director of telecommunications for the Department of Public Service, said 100 Mbps symmetrical speeds are more of an “aspirational goal” than a concrete target.
Before reaching for 100 Mbps by 2024, Porter wants to focus on bringing all addresses in the state up to at least 4 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds.
He thinks that can be achieved by 2020. If the Federal Communications Commission raises download standards to 10 Mbps this winter, which Porter said the agency is considering, it’s likely the state would follow suit, he said.
Otherwise, the minimum download speed target would be bumped up to 10 Mbps in 2017. Any projects receiving state funding starting in 2017 would be required to offer that level of service. Upload speed targets would remain at 1 Mbps.
“Once you have everybody at that level of parity, you move toward the next step, which is 100 symmetrical by 2024,” Porter said.
Porter said the current draft of the plan places more emphasis on the incremental short-term goals, in large part, because their potential funding sources are more clear. Regulatory uncertainty — namely, the state’s lack of authority to regulate Internet providers — further hampers the state’s ability to plan, Porter said.
“I have no ability to tax and no ability to regulate expansion of broadband,” Porter said. “So it is all about money. It’s an attainable goal if there’s sufficient money there to reach the goal.” Delivering 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband speeds is an “extraordinarily expensive” enterprise, he said.
Retired DPS telecom engineer Charlie Larkin thinks Porter should press harder. He said without a tactical plan to expand access and speed service right up to the 2024 goals, Porter’s plan is an empty promise.
“The 10-year plan doesn’t exist,” Larkin said.
The telecom plan should detail concrete actions to achieve the goals, he said. “And it does not do that,” Larkin said.
He criticized the department for not yet publishing a statutorily required survey of telecommunications needs now and into the next decade. The 2014 survey is coming out this month.
“(The plan) says things like the history of telecommunications in Vermont,” Larkin said. “I don’t think we need the history. We need to move on, and act.”
Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding said still another plan, due in December, will lay out more specific actions in line with the plan finalized this fall. Kiersten Bourgeois from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, who Spaulding assigned as a telecommunications liaison, is heading up the action plan efforts.
Bourgeois is also coordinating the proposed transition of responsibilities from the quasi-public Vermont Telecommunications Authority to the executive branch. Spaulding said he’s considering folding VTA’s role into the telecommunications division headed up by Porter at DPS.
Bourgeois said the VTA transition plan will include more action steps. But Porter said it’s too early to commit to anything too specific, because it’s not yet known which addresses will still be unserved or underserved after another round of federal grants and after VTel’s wireless project is complete.
