Vermont Emergency Broadband Action Plan Proposes Universal Access Road Map

Vermont’s Department of Public Service recently released an Emergency Broadband Action Plan that is among the most aggressive of all state responses to the coronavirus pandemic. The state currently has 944 cases of COVID-19, with 54 attributable deaths. A full third of households with school children lacked broadband Internet or a computer as recently as last summer, and as the state’s teachers rushed to produce alternative learning materials after schools closed their doors in mid-March, the predictable happened: “[I]n a number of cases . . . folks really fell right off the radar,” one superintendent told VTDigger. The Emergency Broadband Action plan proposes regulatory changes and network subsidies to achieve universal broadband coverage for all citizens by 2024.