Vermont broadband Internet access: Where is it?

Vermont is in the heat of a gubernatorial campaign, and the candidates are making a new round of promises about broadband and fixing Vermont's spotty cellular phone coverage.

Experts say Vermont's mountains and hills block wireless signals. Its sparse population of about 622,000 makes stringing cables to widely scattered rural homes and businesses too expensive to be profitable in many areas. The upshot is that Vermont has struggled to keep up with the information age. "In most rural areas you have a very challenging business proposition for broadband," said Christopher Campbell, executive director of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority. That state agency, created in 2007, is promoting Vermont's efforts to expand both broadband and cellular phone service statewide. "That doesn't mean it can't be done," Campbell added. "It has been done. It's been done in Vermont. It's even possible that if we waited long enough somebody would figure out how to do it all without any help. The problem is we can't afford to wait." It's difficult to quantify exactly how much broadband and cell phone coverage there is in the state. On broadband, estimates range up to 90 percent.