Broadband could take longer and cost more to deploy in Vermont than anticipated

Many Vermonters who live in rural towns have the least access to high-speed internet. And they could be waiting for a while before getting faster service. Vermont is counting on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for an ambitious plan to bring fiber-optic service to every home on the electric grid within five years. But Christine Hallquist, whom Gov Phil Scott (R-VT) appointed in 2021 to oversee the delivery of that service, said that inflation and supply-chain problems could slow the project. Hallquist, the executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board, said it would probably cost the state more than $1 billion to connect every home to fiber, so the state is counting on private telecommunications providers to take care of all the homes that already have cable. For the largely rural regions of the state without access to high-speed internet, Vermont is relying on a strategy of allowing municipalities to band together into communications union districts, or CUDs, to build fiber-optic service. Hallquist said that, last August, she estimated it would cost $550 million to connect every Vermont home without a reliable high-speed connection to fiber optic service. She said the board wanted to provide the communications union districts with 60 percent of the total cost of building out fiber networks, or $345 million in grants — if that estimate held. The districts could then go to the bond markets to borrow the rest. But Hallquist expects that number to continue to rise due to nationwide competition for labor and materials.