Rural towns bundling a blueprint for broadband

RURAL TOWNS BUNDLING A BLUEPRINT FOR BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Burlington (VT) Free Press, AUTHOR: Joel Banner Baird]
Using Burlington Telecom's municipal broadband network as a model, 22 rural Vermont towns are poised to pool their resources and launch a fiber-optic project that could go online by the end of 2009. It's more than a twinkle in a technician's eye. Members of the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network announced Wednesday that formal agreements are in the works from Windsor to Montpelier that would bring the strength of numbers -- and attractive financing -- to universal broadband Internet coverage. The group's leadership presented the project at a board meeting of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority held Wednesday at the Zampieri Office Building in Burlington. The presenters made no funding requests but asked the state board for support with credit and regulatory hurdles.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/NEWS02/801240322/1007