[A] new report has ranked Vermont 43rd in the country for download speeds for smartphone users.
At the bottom of the list were Mississippi and Wyoming, while New Jersey and Massachusetts took the top spots.
Kevin Fitchard, Open Signal’s lead analyst for the U.S., said in Vermont’s case, average download speeds are likely suffering because of the state’s lack of a major population center.
“Operators tend to focus their most sophisticated network upgrades in big cities where the demand for mobile data services is highest and they get the biggest bang for their investment buck,” Fitchard said.
He said that’s why there’s a big contrast between Vermont and neighboring states like Massachusetts and New York.
Clay Purvis, director of telecommunications and connectivity for the state’s Department of Public Service, said what the report essentially asks is how cities and states are doing on the march to getting 5G service — with Vermont’s low scores showing Vermont is very far away from meeting that criteria. But he doesn’t think that’s even a question Vermont should be asking at this point.
“For rural states, the question is ‘Do our citizens have access to fundamental mobile and broadband that they can use to participate in the digital economy?’” Purvis said. “The answer to that for many rural communities is no.”
He said the functional difference between Vermont’s 17.4 Megabits per second and other state’s 23 or 24 is not particularly significant.
“In part the data is skewed downward for Vermont because in so many areas, there’s no cell service,” Purvis said. “For many Vermonters, the average download and upload speed is zero because they just don’t have service.”
The ranking comes amidst a push by lawmakers to get broadband to the 17,000 Vermonters without internet access, and the 50,000 whose internet is not up to 21st century standards.
Lawmakers this session passed H.513 to help expand Vermont’s broadband network. The legislation is currently awaiting the governor’s signature.
Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, said the bill will help support broadband expansion by creating a loan program for small startup internet providers, allocating money to help municipalities plan broadband buildout, and subsidizing internet service providers’ expansions into rural areas.
“I think importantly we have said that there is a role for the public sector role in broadband and it needs to be increased and that’s what we’re doing going forward,” Sibilia said.
