Greg Sukiennik

The Southern Vermont Communications Union District’s rollout of high-speed fiberoptic cable to Bennington County is entering its second year—and by fall 2023, the work will be done. Consolidated Communications, the firm contracted by the Southern Vermont CUD, ran ahead of schedule stringing cable in Bennington and Shaftsbury in 2022, and has started work in Manchester. A job that was anticipated to take as long as five years in the CUD’s 14 towns is now expected to be completed in a matter of months. How did that happen, when other CUDs had a head start on the Southern Vermont CUD?

The Southern Vermont Communications Union District (CUD) says its partnership with Consolidated Communications — and investments by that company, and federal and state government — will make the goal of finally making universal high-speed internet access possible. The Southern Vermont CUD, one of several statewide, is a municipal government entity representing 14 towns in Bennington County. In 2021, it partnered with Consolidated Communications in a plan to extend high-speed broadband to unserved and underserved communities, leveraging state and federal funds.

Public access stations such as Vermont's Greater Northshire Access Television (GNAT-TV) are facing an uncertain future following a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission that would change the way subscriber fees are collected to fund programming and broadcast services. On Sept 25, the FCC issued proposed rulemaking — Docket 05-311 — which, if adopted, could allow cable operators to reclassify certain in-kind services and subtract their monetary value from the 5 percent that cable companies are required to pay to fund public access stations.