Broadband Meeting At VTC Raises More Questions

By M. Dickie Drysdale
Editor and Publisher of the Herald of Randolph
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders led off his “broadband town meeting” Saturday morning at Vermont Technical College with a ringing affirmation of the need for better broadband coverage in Vermont and the nation.
However, nobody in the crowd of nearly 300 people needed to be convinced of that. What they wanted to know was whether a huge new federal grant to a private company was the right way to do it.
That grant will go to the Vermont Telephone Co. (VTel) a small (until now) provider of communications services that is based in Springfield.
The funding of $179 million is intended to provide top-of-the-line fiber connections to VTel’s own 10,000 subscribers, while extending a less expensive and less speedy service to all unserved communities in the rest of the state.
Vouching for the effectiveness of the VTel proposal was Jonathan Adelstein, the administrator of the funding agency, Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
If implemented, VTel’s proposal “will make a huge difference,” Adelstein told the crowd. It represents “a potential model for the country,” he said.
Vermont’s Chief Technology Officer, Tom Evslin, also told the crowd that the plan will make a dramatic difference.
“The funding is in (this grant) to allow Vermont to make broadband available to everyone,” he said. “We would be the first state in the union” to do that.
“We’re not going to be behind any more; we’re going to be leading,” he proclaimed.
His audience, however, was skeptical. Since the meeting was in Randolph, many attending had been hoping that they would instead benefit from ECFiber’s proposal to lay a fiberglass network to every home in 24 Central Vermont towns that is currently served with phone or cable service.
Direct fiber connections to the home is much faster and more reliable than the wireless service in VTel’s proposal, it was widely agreed. But direct fiber is too expensive to get the whole state on line, some said.
Two Challenges
The challenges to VTel’s plan were two-fold.
Some in the audience were adamant that the wireless service proposed by VTel would fall far short of the state’s needs.
Others were doubtful that the Springfield company would or could do what it says it will do-extend an effective wireless network across the whole state.
Sanders leapt at the chance to meet that concern.
In a staged mini-drama, he called VTel’s CTO, Michel Guité, to the microphone and instructed him to look directly into the television cameras. He then quizzed Guité, warning him his words would be “on the record” before the whole state.
His first question was, “Will you bring broadband to every citizen in Vermont?” From Guité, the answer to this one was “Yes, but …”
Sanders quickly rephrased the question: “I want you to say, will you provide universal broadband service to every single unserved community in Vermont?”
Responding to this quite different question, Guité happily said “Yes, I will.”
“How soon?” queried Sanders.
“Within three years,” Guité answered.
“And how much are you going to charge?”
“10 a month to $35 a month,” the CEO said.
After that, the questions and answers got a little fuzzy. Sanders wanted Guité to guarantee he wouldn’t raise prices quickly; Guité asked that people look at the company’s past record on prices.
Sanders asked whether VTel’s broadband product would accommodate adequate video service, and Guité had to admit that for businesses that are heavily dependent on video, it would not be.
That issue was followed up immediately during the question session, which took up the last hour of the meeting. Jeanne Eicks, technology director at the Vermont Law School said of the Internet sites visited by VLS students, “five of 10 sites” demand video downloads.
They will be able to get this service at the law school, but they also need it in their homes where they study, she pointed out.
“Why are you bringing wireless technology that will not met today’s needs?” she asked, to widespread applause.
Guité responded that enhanced video capacity would be available “in the long run” but not immediately.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s the best that we have,” he declared.
An educator complained that fiber optic technology would reach bigger schools, but not elementary schools in his district.
Too expensive, answered Guité. “The money’s not there.”
A more positive opinion was forthcoming from David O’Brien, the commissioner of Vermont’s Public Service Department.
“This is a positive story for Vermont,” he said. This grant will help us.” Bringing fiber optic service to every point in Vermont “is not a possibility,” he said.
Still, misgivings and uncertainty hung heavy in the air for the rest of the meeting. Questions included the number of towers that would be necessary (119, most of them already in use by other services, Guité said), and specific problems of topography.
A common theme was disappointment that some areas that already have broadband would get enhanced services, while areas still unserved might have to wait. The unserved areas will have priority, Guité promised.
Officials of ECFiber were present but quiet except for a couple of questions near the end of the forum. In comments afterwards, however, the organization was very critical of the direction chosen for the huge federal grant.
“You can’t fool all Vermonters even some of the time,” ECFiber said in a release issued this week.
“It became painfully clear that the FCC, RUS, and VTEL have determined to use the state of Vermont as a guinea pig to test the utility of 4G/LTE wireless technology to provide a fixed broadband to homes and businesses across the unserved porton of the state,” the release said, “even though it is acknowledged to be inferior to fiber to the home, and apparently requires a large government subsidy to make it work.”
ECFiber’s own financing is not conditioned on a major grant, it was noted. Rather, it hopes for an RUS loan that could trigger private investment. The company is still looking toward private financing, it was noted.