Three organizations have won more than $150,000 to help increase broadband services in several rural areas, a historically difficult challenge in Vermont.
Central Vermont Fiber, Newbury REDInet and the Windham Regional Commission received money through the first round of the Vermont Broadband Innovation Grant program. Central Vermont Fiber and WRC received $60,000 each to study the feasibility and construction of broadband infrastructure in those areas. REDInet will receive $34,000 to also study and create a broadband infrastructure plan, on top of $25,000 worth of grants it previously received from the ThinkVermont Innovation and USDA Rural Business Development.
The grant program is meant to work in tandem with the broadband bill Gov. Phil Scott signed this June, which aims to encourage broadband infrastructure growth.
It will award each business up to $60,000 out of the total $700,000 slated for the program. Two more rounds of funding are set to be released. Broadband, or high-speed internet, has to have a speed of 25 megabits per second and an upload speed of 3 megabits per second.
Vermont has struggled for years to bring its broadband coverage up to speed. Despite multiple initiatives to strengthen Vermont’s connectivity, a June report found that Vermont was ranked 43rd in the country for its internet download speeds.
While past broadband solutions may not have had sweeping effects, Clay Purvis, director of telecommunications at Vermont’s Department of Public Service, said this grant program addresses an issue causing some Vermont towns to lose federal funding opportunities.
Purvis said that most federal broadband development grants require towns to have an infrastructure plan in place in order to apply for the money. But those plans are costly, which is why officials hope this grant program will help towns secure more funding down the road to finish projects, Purvis said.
“Federal grants require you to have a project on the shelf than you can dust off and hand to them,” Purvis said.
He said this grant program is empowering local groups to develop their own broadband infrastructure plans that work for them.
“This grant program is different because it’s energizing local resources to tackle the problem of broadband, instead of top-down federal and state solutions,” Purvis said.
Proposals to be considered for the next two rounds of funding are due February 2020 and April 2020.
