The state of Vermont has awarded all the broadband funds that it received through the federal Capital Projects Fund (CPF), said Rob Fish, deputy director for the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB), in an interview with Telecompetitor. As a result of the construction, some previously unserved and underserved areas of the state won’t need funding through the rural broadband BEAD program, Fish told us.
VCBB awarded more than $184.5 million through its CPF-funded Broadband Construction Program, which was supplemented by funding raised by individual communities and network operators. That funding went a long way toward making service available to unserved and underserved locations. Buildouts to about 30,000 locations were directly funded by the VCBB.
When the VCBB started several years ago, there were about 64,000 unserved and underserved locations in the state. Only about 20,000 remain — and with the $229 million that Vermont will receive in BEAD funding and matching funds in that program, Fish is confident that the state will be able to achieve the goal of universal broadband.
The areas that have completed their universal service plans “are freeing up funding for the BEAD program,” he told us. “We’re increasingly confident that we’ll be able to serve every unserved and underserved location in the state.”
Most locations are expected to receive fiber broadband, he added.
“We’re highly confident that we will be able to serve 100/100 Mbps service for everyone on the grid” with fiber, he said.
Locations that aren’t connected to the electrical grid may get broadband via a technology other than fiber, he noted.
Vermont Broadband Funds
Vermont used a rather unique approach toward the goal of achieving universal broadband. Underserved rural communities organized themselves into communications union districts (CUDs), and broadband funding was allocated to each CUD based on road miles.
CUDs encompass a large part of the state – 216 of 252 total towns.
The nine CUDs (reduced from 10 after two of them merged) had a high level of autonomy in determining how to use the broadband funding. CUDs were able to raise additional funding through grants, debt, and donations but not taxes. In most cases, the CUDs will own the networks.
All nine CUDs have been awarded funding through the Broadband Construction Grant program. Three of the nine CUDs – Lamoille FiberNet, Otter Creek and Southern Vermont — are on track to reach universal broadband goals without any BEAD funding.
Some rural areas of Vermont weren’t appropriate for the CUD program, in large part because a century-old provider, Waitsfield & Champlain Valley Telecom (WCVT), had already extensively deployed high-speed broadband there. WCVT did, however, win $8.6 million through the Broadband Construction Program to upgrade non-CUD areas.
In response to Telecompetitor’s inquiry, the VCBB provided us with a summary of the total awards made through the Broadband Construction Grant program:
Additional information about Vermont broadband, including links to state funding resources, state specific Telecompetitor coverage, awards made and more, can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation web page for the state.
