This commentary is by F.X. Flinn of Quechee, an information technology consultant who has served the town of Hartford as a selectboard member or justice of the peace for over 20 years. He represents the town on the board of the East Central Vermont Telecommunications District, which he chairs, and represents the district, which does business as ECFiber, on the Vermont Communications Union District Association board, of which he is president.
Stephen Whitaker’s commentary in VTDigger on Dec 29 tossed out a great deal of misinformation in service of his goal of being given the job of calling the shots for delivering broadband in Vermont. No such a job exists, but he wants it. Only Whitaker Can Fix It.
Now if I actually thought he was capable of it, I’d be the first one to say we need to pay rapt attention to Whitaker, and when he says jump, ask how high. But, I have repeatedly urged him to pick something to focus on and help instead of spending his considerable energies skewering people in public roles whose intelligence, interests and concerns are clearly beneath him. It just seems like such a waste of talent in a state that needs every bit of it to succeed.
So just for the record:
“Vermont Community Broadband Board still has no engineer” — but it is actively seeking to contract with one. Now, if I were King of Broadband, I wouldn’t be advertising for one, I’d be hiring a consulting firm, but then again, we are talking about how state government actually works, not how a businessman would like it to work. Big (and sometimes awfully hard to take) difference.
“Still has no adopted network standards” just isn’t the case; the standards were all agreed to on Dec 19 and are part of the construction grant program slated for overall board approval on Jan 3. And not to put too fine a point on it, but the standards represent months of man-hours by an amazing cross-section of engineering teams actively involved in building fiber internet in Vermont.
“Certainly has no plan or accountability” — there is a plan and there is accountability; it’s not his plan and it’s not the way he would do accountability.
“The Vermont Communications Union Districts Association, an organization that does not officially exist, according to the Vermont Secretary of State’s database” — not sure where he went looking, but presumably he never arrived here, which shows we have been in that database since 2020.
Laura Sibilia “cannot legitimately serve on the broadband board” but of course she can; both she and the communications union districts association checked before making the appointment. Does Whitaker think she and I and the rest of the association’s board members are stupid?
“A statewide engineered fiber design … could be done easily in six months due to the high-quality geographic information datasets Vermont has compiled for poles, fiber, cable, etc.” One of the differences between pontificating and doing is an appreciation for details. While actually doing fiber design engineering, ECFiber has learned that the datasets, even today, are not of sufficient detail to support the work. We showed this conclusively to the Vermont Community Broadband Board during our preconstruction grant application and stand by it.
“It could have been completed by now, had it been started back when the broadband board was first convened and the money was made available, as the authority to spend it on a statewide engineered fiber design was passed as part of the broadband bill.” One of the differences between spouting off and doing is appreciating the way state government works to protect the interests of its citizens from rash spending decisions made by unaccountable decision-makers. Oh golly, does that slow things down in ways that drive those used to the faster pace of private industry crazy. Given all the rules and processes, it’s something of a miracle that the Vermont Community Broadband Board has already committed tens of millions to design work and is well along toward committing ten times that in coming months. I know this op-ed of Whitaker’s is making a lot of hard-working people feel like they have been slapped in the face.
Then he gets into a whole discussion about active vs. passive networks, which, guess what, has been thoroughly debated in terms of Vermont’s on-the-ground reality. By debated, I don’t mean legislatively; I mean technically and economically. It’s complex stuff, for sure. Hand-waving by self-appointed experts is a transparent attempt to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt.
“To be clear, the universal service plans being prepared by communications union districts are not going to detail a strategy, a design or costs of delivering fiber to every E911 address.” But they will; it is simply that initially the funds come with strings that mean underserved addresses will be prioritized.
“And the amateurs stay out of the way. ” As one of those amateurs, I’m happy to say that my role is in part to be sure that qualified professionals are the ones doing the … doing.
