VT Broadband Report

Local ISP See Expansion in the Future

Jim Gibbons – Reporter
Chris Nachtwey - Photographer

Broadband internet service is somewhat of a privilege to have in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

One small company is working hard to supply residents with high speed internet access.

We had a chance to speak with a few employees of Kingdom Connection to see how they are looking to meet the demand……

Kingdom Connection will continue to do all they can to provide residents of the Northeast Kingdom with wireless high speed internet.

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Broadband

Jim Gibbons – Reporter
Chris Nachtwey - Photographer

On October 8th, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was in St. Johnsbury, Vermont to speak with local residents on a variety of topics. We caught up with the Senator and asked him his viewpoint on rural broadband access in Vermont.

Senator Sanders says that he will continue to work with the state and also with local town officials to help them gain high speed broadband internet access to all Vermonters through out the state.

Vermont Department of Public Service

So who has broadband in Vermont anyway? 'Want to know? Check The Vermont Department of Public Service site by clicking HERE

Vermont Farmer Feels the Crunch of Slow Web

Kelly Beech - Reporter
Chris Nachtwey - Photographer

Phil Taylor's family has been running Glendale Farm for five generations - since 1865, the year the Civil War ended. The entire family is involved with the day to day operation, including Phil's brother Richard. Their 120 Holstein cows produce 70 pounds of milk every day, and 70-hour weeks leave the brothers little free time to explore the internet. They do, however, keep track of supply prices, and breeding prospects on-line with a sluggish 56K connection. The lack of speed is a point of frustration for the Taylors...

The Taylor's are part of the Agri-mark-Cabot Creamery Cooperative in Vermont. The cooperative's membership is aging - and declining. From 1993 to 2003, Vermont lost 806 dairy farms a decline of about 36%. Many of the remaining Cabot farmers take advantage of the co-op's web based resources to help monitor their production quality in real-time...

Putting in the long hours at the Glendale farm doesn’t afford the Taylor’s a great deal of leisure time and they rarely travel. So keeping up with developments in new technology is difficult. But even more of a stretch is trying to stay current with farming trends and issues...

The family is faced with challenges to keep the small farm afloat. With ever fluctuating milk prices and the pressure to sell out or commercialize their operation, the Taylor's are holding true to their family roots. To make ends meet, the brothers log during the winter and make maple syrup in the spring.

Many of Phil’s fellow farmers have branched out and are selling their maple products and organic beef on the web. Phil admits that he isn’t quite ready to embrace the Internet as a marketing tool for the farm. Instead, he says, that may be left up to his 18-year-old son, Charlie…

Vermont Pinning “e-state” Hopes on Fiber Optics, Wireless

By Joshua James Gervais

10/4/07

Fiber optic and wireless are the primary technologies Vermont will use to become the nation’s first "e-state," a report from Gov. Jim Douglas’ office says.

Douglas signed House Bill 0248 into law in June, establishing the Vermont Telecommunications Authority. Douglas proposed in his last inaugural address that Vermont "provide universal cellular and broadband coverage everywhere and anywhere within its borders" by 2010.

The authority was created to find what parts of Vermont are lacking cellular and broadband services, and to create the infrastructure to fill those needs.

The authority can issue up to $40 million in bonds, which Douglas said will leverage more than $200 million in private investment.

"The authority will serve as a bridge between public sector efforts and private sector investments and will seek to complement – not replace – the role of service providers and infrastructure developers," he said.

The authority has set a goal of "affordable" Internet access for every home in Vermont by 2010, at speeds of at least 1.5 megabytes per second – comparable to current DSL service.

A report from the governor's office entitled "The Vermont Way Forward: The Nation's First E-State" commits the state to create a "sustainable model that will continue to keep Vermont on the leading edge of these services." Groups already working in the field, such as the Vermont Broadband Council, are being invited to collaborate in an effort to speed up the process.

The report says the authority will use different technologies for different situations, but the two primary technologies will be fiber optic and wireless. According to the report, "the networks supported by the authority will be a carefully selected mixture of fiber and wireless infrastructure that will blanket the entire state."