<story><title>Vermont proposes providing broadband internet service to all state residents</title><url>https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2020/05/06/vermont-proposes-providing-broadband-all-state-residents/5177598002/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nekbroadband</author><text>Hi there, I&amp;#x27;m a part of this effort and we did learn from the Burlington Telecom fiasco. Legislation was passed in 2014 that provided for the forming of Communications Union Districts which can build municipally controlled broadband infrastructure, but can&amp;#x27;t access the municipal bond market, meaning taxpayers are never at risk. The downside of this is we have to rely on federal funding in most cases since private capital wants to make sure they have the option to take it out on the taxpayer if the debt load becomes unserviceable. Right now this is not an issue at all for us with hundreds of millions of stimulus money specifically for broadband floating around, the challenge is beating Comcast et al to the money bin. Comcast in particular is pure evil in Vermont, they signed a contract to build out a paltry 550 miles of new cable to unserved addresses over 10 years (55 miles a year) and then sued the state afterwards for infringing on their 1st amendment rights.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arstechnica.com&amp;#x2F;tech-policy&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;comcast-sues-vermont-to-avoid-building-550-miles-of-new-cable-lines&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arstechnica.com&amp;#x2F;tech-policy&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;comcast-sues-ver...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m with one of the largest CUDs in VT, NEK Community Broadband, which represents 27 towns in the northeast of the state. We&amp;#x27;re talking to our state government as we speak to make sure incumbent providers are held accountable if they are provided with federal money, and preferably, build our own infrastructure. The timeline for this has shrunk from 3-5 years, to 8 MONTHS by restrictions imposed on spending CARES act and other federal dollars by Jan 1. It&amp;#x27;s an exciting time!</text></comment>
<story><title>Vermont proposes providing broadband internet service to all state residents</title><url>https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2020/05/06/vermont-proposes-providing-broadband-all-state-residents/5177598002/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>geocrasher</author><text>I wish more states viewed it this way. I think that COVID19 has proven that Internet isn&amp;#x27;t a luxury, it&amp;#x27;s a utility that we all need. In a world with online meetings being the way to simply hang out with your friends, those with bad Internet connections are suffering more. It shouldn&amp;#x27;t be that way.</text></comment>