Twenty two towns in rural Vermont are planning a regional fiber-optic network. It could be ready by the end of 2009, reports MuniWireless.
The East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network, ValleyFiber, Vermont Telecommunications Authority and Vermont Rural Broadband Project are participants.
The East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network announced the plan this week. The Vermont Telecommunications Authority would provide credit and regulatory assistance. Low-interest loans would allow the $70 million, subscriber-funded network to achieve a positive cash flow in four to six years.
The Institute of Local Self Reliance issued a report, Municipal Broadband: Demystifying Wireless and Fiber-Optic Options reviews the merits of just such networks. Earlier attempts to serve rural areas with broadband, including state-funded pilot wireless systems, have fallen short of fiber-optic’s technical advantages, says the paper.
Three statewide broadand wireless networks have been proposed in the United States include the states of South Carolina (31,000 square miles), Vermont (9,249 square miles), and Rhode Island (1,044 square miles). But changes in state leadership and developments in technology, such as commercial WiMAX by Clearwire and Sprint as well as future 700 Mhz options, have apparently put those plans on the back burner.
Is FREE state-wide wireless access achievable? Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon — if the stars align around 700 MHz.
Related Fiber Optic articles on DailyWireless include; Trouble in UTOPIA?, City Fiber Networks, National Broadband Policy?, Connecting the Nation, Utopia Spreads, Muni Fiber for Portland?, IPTV: Is It Soup Yet?, Community Fiber Nets, Oregon MuniFiber: the Bad & the Good, Q-Life Unwired for Google’s Oregon Facility?, Oregon Fiber for Google, Verizon Makes its Move for Universal Service Fund, Verizon’s $6B Smackdown, ConnectKentucky, Qwest Proposes Universal Service Changes, Wireless Houston: Size Queen?, Statewide/Nationwide Wireless Broadband, State-wide Wireless Broadband Access, South Carolina Proposes Statewide Free Wireless, Rural Broadband Dying, and Statewide Wimax in Rhode Island, Congress: Measure Broadband Better!, Oregon’s $500 Million Statewide Wireless Network.
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