New broadband expansion in Dummerston, Norwich, Randolph and Wilmington

Montpelier

The Vermont Telecommunications Authority is announcing awards to three Internet Service Providers for expansion projects to addresses in Dummerston, Norwich, Randolph and Wilmington that do not yet have access to broadband Internet. All projects must meet a minimum combined download/upload speed of 5Mbps.

In the southern tier, service to Chester, Andover, Grafton, Weston, Springfield, Peru, Landgrove, Windham, Jamaica and Manchester is complete or in progress with few remaining areas that need to be served, while in Winhall there remains targeted communities.

The VTA’s role is to fill in the gaps where broadband expansion projects funded by federal, state regulatory dockets or private investment are not in progress. The state is on target to fulfill the organization’s goal: by the end of the year all of Vermont’s as yet unserved locations will either have service, or have a specific broadband expansion project funded and in progress to get service to them.

• Southern Vermont Cable will extend its service in Dummerston along all or portions of the following roads: Dutton Farm, Emery Hill, Kipling, Knapp East, Miller, Nourse Hollow, Park Laughton, Spaulding Hill and Tucker Reed. The grant award was $117,397. The project will involve extensive infrastructure construction and must be completed by August 2014.

• ECFiber has been awarded $46,574 for locations on Barbara Lee Lane in Norwich and Crocker and Kingsbury roads in Randolph with a Sept. 1, 2014 completion deadline.

• A group of Wilmington residents will benefit from an award to FairPoint Communications of $104,000. Locations will get access to the company’s DSL service along all or portions of Boyd Hill Road, Old Mill Lane, Rader Road and Riley Boyd Road with a completion deadline of June 30, 2014.

“I’m so pleased that we will have expanded broadband service to about 99 percent of Vermont homes and businesses by year’s end, and these projects will help ensure the few remaining locations have access in the near future,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said when he learned of the awards.

The VTA made the awards through the broadband grant round announced on Jan. 31, 2013. Funding for the grant program was made possible by an appropriation of the legislature in the FY2012-2013 Capital Budget requested by Gov. Shumlin as part of the Connect VT initiative.
The list of locations eligible for the grant program was compiled using data collected from providers through Vermont’s Broadband Mapping Initiative. To stay up-to-date on broadband initiatives, visit telecomvt.org and broadbandvt.org.