Grants to four local broadband organizations represent the first major step in a five-year plan to bring high-speed internet service to Vermont’s most rural areas, officials said at a press conference in Montpelier on Monday.
Nearly $10 million will accelerate planning work for four communications union districts: Maple Broadband in Addison County, CVFiber in central Vermont, DVFiber in the Deerfield Valley, and the Northwest Communications Union District in Franklin and Grand Isle counties.
“This is really a celebration of all the work that’s been done over all the years,” said Christine Hallquist, executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board. Patty Richards is the board chair.
Hallquist has long championed the use of communications union districts — local networks run by community members and volunteers — to lead the process of building a statewide fiber system through public-private partnerships. There are now nine communications union districts covering more than 200 Vermont towns, Hallquist said Monday.
The four grant recipients have already created “high-level designs,” Hallquist said, mapping the general routes for their networks. The money will allow each organization to conduct more detailed planning and engineering work, such as selecting utility poles. Construction is slated to begin next summer.
The grants are the first direct allocations under Act 71, a $150 million broadband package that was approved by the Legislature in May. The legislation used money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to fund preconstruction and construction projects by communications union districts. It also established the Vermont Community Broadband Board, the body that Hallquist now chairs, to oversee the process.
On Monday, state leaders — including Gov. Phil Scott, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint and House Speaker Jill Krowinski — discussed the importance of high-speed internet access to Vermonters during the pandemic, when many businesses, schools and health and social service providers switched to remote access.
“Connectivity is essential to our daily lives, the way we do business and how we stay connected with family and friends,” Scott said. “It’s also critical infrastructure that will allow us to grow the economy in all 14 counties and help us retain and attract more workers.”
Welch, who was among the 220 U.S. House members who voted to pass the American Rescue Plan Act in March, echoed Hallquist in comparing the broadband effort to the rural electrification initiative that began in the 1930s, which also relied on a community-based approach.
“I don’t see many Comcast executives here,” Welch told the crowd. “Not to disparage Comcast. But the reality is — and this was the reality with electricity — there’s no business model that makes it worthwhile for a major company to invest in getting that electric line — in this case, the broadband line — to that last farm on the dirt road in Hartland, Vermont.”
Representatives from each of the four grant recipients spoke about the level of need in their communities — in some, more than a third of households don’t have access to broadband.
With the varied needs of families juggling remote work and school, “just having an internet connection is not sufficient anymore,” said Jeremy Hansen, chair of CVFiber.
“One of the refrains when my kids were home was, ‘Is anybody downloading anything?’” Hansen recalled. “We all looked around at each other or shouted room to room, and the folks who weren’t on the Zoom call or who weren’t doing homework — we disconnected, dropped everything.”
The higher connection speeds from fiber internet will solve that problem, he said.
All of Vermont’s communications union districts are at different stages in the planning process, Hallquist said. But she expects to receive preconstruction grant applications from the remaining networks within weeks. The board is committed to deciding on applications within two weeks of receiving them, she said.
Ann Manwaring, a former state representative from Wilmington who chairs DVFiber, said the organization was eager to accelerate the preconstruction process and begin installation. The funding secured by Vermont’s congressional delegation will help construction begin “so much faster,” she said.
“Thank you for our $4.1 million. We are eager to get started,” she said. “And we’ll be back for more.”
Correction: This article has been corrected to state that Christine Hallquist is executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board.