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."
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