Updated at 4:29 p.m.
The U.S. Treasury has released $90 million of the $113 million committed to Vermont to expand broadband coverage across the state.
The money comes from the $10 billion federal capital projects fund, part of the American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Joe Biden last year.
The $90 million released on Wednesday would fund the connection of 13,818 households and businesses — 22% of the Vermont locations still lacking high-speed internet access, Jacob Leibenluft, chief recovery officer at the Treasury, said in a conference call with Gene Sperling, White House American rescue coordinator, and with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, both D-Vt.
Leibenluft said the Treasury Department requires internet service providers that will ultimately receive the funds through the state to provide a discount of up to $30 a month per qualifying household for internet service. He said 20 internet service providers across the country have already committed not to charge more than $30 a month for internet service, so the additional discount would mean qualifying households served by these providers would essentially receive free internet.
Leahy said 20% of the money would go to Vermont’s public libraries.
Welch said an additional $100 million is destined for Vermont broadband in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by Biden last year. Vermont recently applied for an additional $113 million from that fund.
Christine Hallquist, executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board, recently estimated that the total cost of the project would exceed $1.2 billion.
Hallquist said a total of $350 million would go out to Vermont’s communications union districts over the next five years. The districts are the basis for the state’s strategy to cover the state with fiber-optic cable. Towns can band into communications union districts to increase their negotiating power with internet providers. The districts will have to raise an additional $200 million on the bond markets.
The balance of the $1.2 billion would come from private companies upgrading their networks in places where they already provide some kind of internet service.
The Vermont Community Broadband Board announced Tuesday it had approved $26.5 million to bring broadband to 4,000 underserved addresses.
Of that, $9.1 million went to a partnership between the communications union district Maple Broadband and Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom to expand fiber-optic broadband to 2,000 additional customers in Bridport, Ferrisburgh, New Haven, Panton, Waltham and Weybridge.
Another $8.4 million went to Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom to bring broadband to 1,200 addresses, bringing full coverage to Charlotte and Bolton and partial coverage to seven other towns.
Another $9 million went to the Southern Vermont Communications Union District, which is partnering with Consolidated Communications to bring broadband to 1,343 underserved addresses.
The Southern Vermont Communications Union District, once lagging behind other districts, now plans to connect nearly every address in 14 towns by the end of next year.
The Vermont Community Broadband Board has allocated $90 million in construction grants to date.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly classified Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom.
