Vermont

The Public Service Department (PSD) announces the 2024 Mobile Wireless Drive Test: Public Input Survey. This survey allows Vermonters to highlight areas they know where Mobile Wireless Coverage is limited or unavailable, as they are the people who live, work, and drive in these areas every day. The survey includes the ability to enter a specific address or highlight a roadway with limited or unavailable service. The data collected from this survey will assist the Department in mapping the route for the upcoming 2024 Mobile Wireless Drive Test.

Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) is proud to announce the start of a new Fiber Optic Apprenticeship Program in Vermont. The program puts participants to work right away, allowing them to learn on the job and earn a paycheck from the start. The Fiber Optic Apprenticeship Program is part of the Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP), a Department of Labor-registered apprenticeship program. VCBB is partnering with Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), TIRAP’s national sponsor, to bring the program to Vermont.

The buildout of broadband is well underway in Vermont, with eight out of the state’s ten Communications Union Districts (CUDs) currently connecting customers. But for Vermonters who live more than 400 feet from the fiber line along the road, that connection can come at a cost that’s unaffordable.

Christine Hallquist was well-qualified to serve as the Executive Director of the Vermont broadband office when Governor Phil Scott appointed her to the position in 2021.

In Vermont, a thinly-populated rural state, private providers have often shown little interest in investing in broadband improvements.

Vermont Community Broadband Board has awarded a $20.2 million construction grant to Communications Union District (CUD) Northwest Fiberworx. The grant was awarded at VCBB’s May meeting and comes from the Broadband Construction Program, a State of Vermont grant funded with American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

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.

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.