Tuesday, June 4, 2024
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Neighbors Providing Service to Neighbors: Vermont’s Approach to Community Broadband
USTelecom: The Solution to Affordable Connectivity is Staring Us in the Face
Broadband Funding
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At the end of May, the Affordable Connectivity Program, which helps over 23 million low-income households access high-speed internet at home, officially ran out of funding. This lapse occurs despite strong support from the White House and lawmakers of both parties, as well as the backing of four out of five Americans. The focus must now shift to delivering a long-term fix. Fortunately, the solution is staring us in the face. Congress must instruct the Federal Communications Commission to modernize and right-size the Universal Service Fund to also include a new, financially responsible, and self-sustaining version of the ACP, all while dramatically reducing the fees charged to consumers to fund this important effort. Two short years ago, some 23 million American households saw their government do something real and meaningful to help improve their lives—only to take it away. We owe them not words of regret or vague promises, but urgent collective action. Congress can ensure our nation’s commitment to universal broadband and affordability endures.
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In 2019, the Vermont Department of Public Service found that nearly a quarter of Vermont addresses lacked service that met the then federal benchmarks for broadband speeds (25/3 megabits per second, or Mbps). The COVID-19 pandemic only underscored the urgent need in a state that has consistently ranked near the bottom of connectivity comparisons over the past decade. Vermonters saw a lack of interest from private providers to invest in the sparsely populated rural state and recognized that communities needed to address the problem themselves. To help communities organize themselves to address their broadband needs, Vermont turned to an existing model in the state: a Communications Union District (CUD). Similar to public utility districts that communities have relied on around the country to build water or electricity infrastructure, CUDs are formal partnerships among multiple towns to build communications infrastructure. Where a single community may struggle to address its broadband needs, CUDs can create larger, more feasible markets and allow towns to share resources and raise funds. They are led by a board composed of volunteer residents from the member towns to ensure responsiveness to community needs. Through these CUDs, Vermonters in 216 of the state’s 252 towns are combining forces to improve broadband access for their communities. It is, as State Representative Laura Sibilia (I–Windham-Bennington) puts it, “neighbors providing service to neighbors.”
[Ry Marcattilio is an associate director for research with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative. Revati Prasad is the vice president of programs at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society overseeing the Institute’s programmatic and research work.]
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NEK Broadband and CVFiber announce a preliminary plan to join the two Communications Union Districts (CUDs). The proposed merger would unite resources, experience, expertise, and a shared commitment to deliver exceptional high-speed internet services to their collective 71 communities. Working together, they will be better able to support digital equity, economic growth, and community development across the Northeast Kingdom and Central Vermont. Working more collaboratively allows the CUDs to leverage infrastructure investments effectively, accelerate the deployment of proven and reliable technologies, and optimize operational efficiencies. This will significantly add to the ongoing capacity to fulfill the combined mission to ensure that every resident and business has access to reliable high-speed internet. Specifically, NEK Broadband and CVFiber propose to work together under the new business name, Northeast Central Broadband. The service plans, customer service, and pricing for both CVFiber and NEK Broadband areas will not change for the foreseeable future. Their respective financial, operations, and communications professionals will share skill sets. An additional benefit will be collaboration for grant applications that often benefit from a larger service area.
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Two entities—Maverix Broadband and the Southern Colorado Economic Development District—have won over $750,000 for rural broadband buildouts through an innovative Colorado program. The program, known as the Location Modification Program, followed awards made in the state’s Advance Colorado Broadband Grant Program, which was funded through the federal Capital Projects Fund. A total of more than $113.5 million was tentatively awarded through that program in January. Applicants sought funding to serve locations not served by previous applicants and near initial awarded areas. Maverix Broadband and the Southern Colorado Economic Development District were the only applicants in the follow-on program. Both winners will contribute matching funds to the projects to cover at least 25% of the total cost of the deployments. Matching funds also were a requirement in the initial CPF program.
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The Marubo people have long lived in communal huts scattered hundreds of miles along the Ituí River deep in the Amazon rainforest. They have preserved this way of life for hundreds of years through isolation — some villages can take a week to reach. But since September, the Marubo have had high-speed internet thanks to Elon Musk. The 2,000-member tribe is one of hundreds across Brazil that are suddenly logging on with Starlink, the satellite-internet service from Space X. Since its entry into Brazil in 2022, Starlink has swept across the world’s largest rainforest, bringing the web to one of the last offline places on Earth.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org), Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org), and Zoe Walker (zwalker AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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Kevin Taglang
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