This commentary is by Christine Hallquist of Wolcott, administrator for Lamoille FiberNet and NEK Community Broadband. She was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2018 and is former CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative.
As someone who has been working a long time to get broadband to rural Vermonters, I want to share my pleasure with Gov. Scott’s leadership, as well as the leadership and hard work of the Legislature this year.
I strongly support the governor’s firm message that the one-time money that is coming from the federal government should be used for infrastructure, specifically broadband. Investments in Fiber-To-The-Premise are the way to increase economic activity in the future, which creates greater revenue, which ultimately reduces individual tax burden in the long run.
It is a solution to the Digital Divide, where urban residents currently have access to information, education and opportunity that rural Vermonters do not have.
I, along with many others, have spent time preparing and delivering testimony to multiple legislative committees, multiple times. Those committees have been working long hours to understand the complexities behind delivery of telecommunication services.
Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission, along with the federal government has not recognized that fiber-optic infrastructure is as critical to the future of America as electricity is. In the 1930s, then-President Franklin D Roosevelt, with the assistance of Vermont Sen. George Aiken, signed an executive order putting in place the rural electric cooperative system with the goal of connecting every home in America to electricity. That was a recognition that electricity is infrastructure, along with water, sewer and roads.
While we do not have that leadership from the federal government today, the Vermont Legislature does recognize the criticality of fiber optic infrastructure. The creation of communication union districts was an elegant state-level alternative to electric cooperatives.
Just like the start of rural electrification, CUDs are volunteers pulling together to carry out a challenging and complex task. Forgive my bias, however; citizen volunteers led what I call one of humankind’s greatest achievements, the electrification of rural America. The same will happen with the CUDs.
During this legislative session, it became apparent that Vermont would be receiving a large amount of federal funds to help extend fiber-optic cable to the most remote addresses in Vermont. What comes with lots of money is lots of lobbying. The Legislature is under intense pressure from private telecommunication companies to funnel that money to those existing for-profit entities.
The problem is that the goal of making a profit goes against the goal of providing service to every last address.
Network design is highly technical, highly nuanced, and quite boring. My heart goes out to those committee members who spent hours listening to topics like “Gigabit Passive Network Design,” “NEMA 4 enclosures” and “optical splicing protocols.” However, it was necessary to get down to the physics because there was so much contrary information coming at such a fast pace. The Legislature had to cut through all of the noise to determine the best path forward.
Many sessions extended into the evening with grumbling stomachs and blurred vision from staring at Zoom screens. I am so impressed that every last committee member remained engaged and asked important and detailed questions.
Of course, there are going to be Monday morning quarterbacks who will likely be critical of some of the specifics in the final legislation. I, for one, will not go there. I know how many countless hours were spent and how hard everyone worked to come up with the best path forward. Once again, I am proud of Vermont.