This has been a great month for communities building their own high capacity broadband networks in New England. Wired West in rural Massachusetts has formalized its coop of communities. Just last Friday, we wrote about the East Central Vermont Community Fiber network in beta. As of last night, EC Fiber is out of beta and officially live! Those interested can sign up at MyECFiber.net. Last night, they issued this press release:

SOUTH ROYALTON – Having completed its beta testing, and with the Phase I project nearly complete, ECFiber began connecting its first customers today. Eight customers have been beta-testing the system for the past two weeks, getting sustained 5Mbps symmetrical service.

The Barnard General Store, one of the beta sites, has been offering the experience to customers via WI-FI, and has been finding folks on their doorstep at all hours, trying out the system.

“It’s been amazing,” says Kim Furlong, one of the store’s proprietors. “Because so much more of what we do is online, it is truly a joy to reap the reward of high-speed internet. Dial-up, and even satellite, is such a time-robber. Fiber is very different – you can be more efficient, and that is exciting. At the same time, I have some trepidation. People are going to relocate here more permanently because of what is available, and that is probably going to change the fabric of the community.”

According to Project Coordinator Leslie Nulty, 15 new accounts were opened within the first 24 hours after the doorstep delivery of information packets. Barnard Academy, another beta site, is also very excited about the service. They are planning an open house and community celebration of ECFiber’s arrival in mid-October.

Barnard was chosen for the Phase I project because of its proximity to the central office and its large number of unserved users. Pre-registrations topped 90% before the project started. Phase II, to build out the rest of the town of Barnard, is in the planning stages, with an informational meeting set for Thursday night at 7PM at the Barnard Town Hall.

The East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network has announced it will connect an entire town as its second phase. Barnard, Vermont, will be the first town to have universal access to ECFiber's next-generation network.

An update on Phase 1 of this network:

Phase 1, with construction under way (see photo) and scheduled to go live in early August, brings an ultra-high-speed fiber loop from the ECFiber central office near I89 Exit 3, along VT Routes 107 and 12,  to the center of Barnard. ECFiber expects to begin connecting businesses and residents who live on this route in early August and will provide detailed subscriber information closer to that date.

ECFiber has 23 member towns, but Barnard could be the most enthusiastic. This is as grassroots as it gets:

At its June meeting, the ECFiber Governing Board authorized an initiative to extend service to the rest of Barnard town. This requires a second round of capital-raising through a similar "friends and families" offering directed specifically to residents, businesses, and others who wish to support the deployment of universal broadband in Barnard.

Loredo Sola, ECF Governing Board Chair commented, "When we first took our plan to Barnard, we were inundated with residents offering to pay the entire cost of extending the Phase 1 trunk to their homes. This enthusiastic response inspired us to authorize a Barnard-only fund drive."  ECFiber will be organizing informational meetings for Barnard residents and businesses to explain the details of the plan.
When sufficient funds have been committed to build out the entire town, the Barnard Local Fund will close, and construction of Phase 2 can begin.

Barnard had 94% of the community presubscribe!

The success of ECFiber comes without any support of the state, which has continued to pretend wireless connections and out-of-state corporations will provide the networks necessary for the economic development needed by communities.

Valley News took note of the story and expanded on it:

Without other funding streams, it could take seven to 10 years to build out to all 23 towns, Nulty said, but the company is committed to seeing it happen. By building out to Barnard, a town with few other Internet options, and eventually providing “universal coverage” there, ECFiber hopes to demonstrate its business model and attract more investors who could speed up the process.

And some financial details:

In phase one, notes were sold for $4,500 a piece, with varying interest rates depending on the level of investment, Nulty said. For subsequent financing phases, the notes will be valued differently. About 25 percent of the note goes toward the central ECFiber fund to build out future “links” of fiber, he said, and the rest goes toward the network in the specific town being built out -- in this case, Barnard.

And finally, a classic quote from Tim Nulty -- a Vermonter who will always choose to be self-reliant if at all possible:

[I]nterviewed on Tuesday, he said it felt “fantastic” to finally make some tangible progress on the ECFiber dream. He only regretted the time wasted pursuing the federal stimulus money.

“As a native Vermonter, I can't tell you how many nights of sleep I've lost for going to the federal government with a beggar's bowl when we should have done it ourselves,” Nulty said. “So, it feels good, but it’s also coupled with immense regret.”

Update: We have covered the second round of financing from ECFiber here.

The East Central Vermont Fiber Network, connecting some 23 rural towns, announced back in July that they would self finance a pilot project as a preliminary step to securing the full funding for the project.

Right around Thanksgiving, last year, David Brown updated the community on progress via an article in the Vermont Standard:

It would have been terrific to get the $50million needed to build out all 35,000 telephone and electric poles with 1,500 miles of fiber optic cable. Along the way, we learned an important lesson. We noticed that government money went to existing telephone companies to expand existing networks rather than funding start-ups like ours. That’s when the ECFibernauts decided on a change in strategy: build a small network, get a few real customers, and deliver rock-solid ultra-fast Internet to them as a proof of concept – all using our own money. Then, when all the critical components are up and running, go to the commercial markets for funding needed to expand out to all 23 towns.

The ECFiber Governing Board and our technology partners ValleyNet, Inc. are fortunate to have several experienced financiers within our ranks. Working with our attorneys (to keep everything legal) ECFiber is reaching out to the community with a private offering of tax-exempt promissory notes. As of this writing, we have raised more than three-quarters of what is needed to complete Phase I of our project. The ECFiber hub is now under construction on Waterman Road in Royalton and an initial pole attachment application for 500 poles is being processed. Phase I will bring ECFiber service to selected businesses, schools, town facilities and residents in Bethel, Barnard, Stockbridge and Royalton.

This is a commitment that few other communities have made -- self-financing a start up portion. It is actually quite inspiring, though one quickly grasps the huge need from the stories EC Fiber has collected. Any community hoping to organize a network should copy this EC Fiber page. With a simple form, you can documents hundreds of individual stories of people who want better broadband.

Consider what Cynthia in Norwich contributed:

I live in a remote part of Norwich with little population but much need. I am an artist and photographer, mostly working at home. Due to some health issues, I am not always able to go somewhere else to access high-speed internet, nor is it convenient to do so. I have to drive 6-8 miles to the nearest library, and can only take a small laptop which doesn't have all the information to run my business. I have a web site (www.creaturekinships.com) which takes forever, on flaky dial-up to revise, and downloading updates and security measures can take hours. Since I work with art and photography and am a moderator on a photography web site (NatureScapes.net), I can't do my work efficiently as it also takes several minutes to get images...IF the phone line doesn't crash while downloading (which it often does.) I typically need to look at and comment on 5-15 images a day. I would be looking at more like 20-30 images if I could.

EC Fiber had applied to the Vermont Telecommunications Authority for a $4.2 million grant to build the backbone of the network and connect a number of community anchor institutions as well as some 800 homes in the most rural and least competitive areas.

In a plea for supporters to write the VTA and other officials in support of the project, Ian Stewart described local hardships:

I understand the Vermont Law School has experienced an uptick in potential students opting not to attend VLS because they can’t get broadband access from their rented accommodations. Beside renting apartments, these temporary Vermonters bring much needed revenue to our local businesses and contribute to the daily lives of our communities. We all lose every time a VLS applicant withdraws his candidacy.

Even if VTA wanted to prioritize funding for ECFiber, its hands are limited by the law, which limits where VTA can fund:

The RUS award was great news to VTel shareholders, but it stopped dead in its tracks any plans the VTA may have had to help other organizations bring high speed internet service to rural Vermont. The Vermont legislature passed a bill with language that prohibits the VTA from funding telecom development in any area where another entity has a “legally binding commitment” to make telecom investments. That includes VTel’s award and Fairpoint’s DSL build-out commitments. The language effectively poisoned the waters for anyone else seeking VTA funding, including ECFiber’s efforts to bring ultra high speed Internet to 23 area towns.

This is a failure to distinguish between broadband as infrastructure (wireline) and broadband as stopgap (wireless). Nonetheless, ECFiber does qualify for some funds under the "Backroads Broadband Program" for middle mile and the most unserved households. The end of this article in the Vermont Standard is a call to action for people to contact the VTA.

Regardless of the VTA funding, EC FIber is moving forward on its pilot:

At ECFiber’s November Governing Board meeting, ValleyNet staff reported that the Phase I fiber-optic network build has begun with the first round of pole surveys conducted with Fairpoint and CVPS, as required by regulation.

As of Jan 6, had raised $907,500 from the community for the first phase, exceeding their goal.

ECFiber Governing Board Chair Loredo Sola of North Pomfret said, "This is a very important and hard-fought first step. Phase I establishes a baseline for building and operating cost, build time, expected market penetration, and resulting revenue. That baseline gives ECFiber a solid platform on which to build its network to all twenty-three ECFiber member towns."

"More importantly," said Sola, "this community-raised financing demonstrates confidence in a community-owned and managed network as well as frustration that public and private promises to bring us broadband have fallen way short. Here's an example in true Vermont tradition of communities stepping up and taking charge."

As it moves forward, it moves out of the shadow of Burlington Telecom's problems -- though detractors will undoubtedly continue to try to tie them together.

Vermonters are asking some hard questions about the federal broadband stimulus decision to throw money at a wireless network for Vermont rather than loaning money to an organization dedicated to delivering real broadband.

Senator Bernie Sanders convened a meeting to discuss the awards toward the end of October.

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.

VTel, a small private telephone company, received a $116 million grant to build a FTTH network to serve their existing 18,000 footprint as well as a wireless network that is intended to serve the entire state.

In contrast, the East Central Vermont Fiber Network (which we have covered previously), applied for a loan to build a FTTH network to everyone in the 24 communities that have joined together to form the network. The ECFiber network would be run by a nonprofit and would repay the loan from revenue generated by selling triple-play services on the network.

Vermonters have a strong fiscal conservatism streak, which has shown up strongly in the discussions around this situation, something noted in a story leading up to the Sanders meeting:

He will get plenty of both from representatives of ECFiber, the consortium of 23 towns that has been planning a network of fiber-optic broadband to virtually every home in the White River Valley and beyond.

The organization was stung recently when its own request for a loan was not funded by RUS, which instead awarded a much larger outright grant to VTel, which is located in Springfield.

Our position at MuniNetworks, is quite similar to that of the these Vermonters: loans would be better policy than grants for broadband infrastructure.

Supporters of the wireless network, including VTel's CEO, Michel Guite, have suggested the $116 million grant will put Vermont at the head of the broadband pack (from story quoted above):

“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.

Unfortunately, this appears to be yet another case of wireless hype vastly exceeding the likely outcomes. A skeptical editorial from the Vermont Standard echoes the concerns of many more Vermonters with a rather understated fact:

Vermont’s mountains and valleys are a significant barrier to universal wireless service.

Senator Sanders appeared to push VTel's CEO on the question, but reporter Dickie Drysdale caught the important qualifications in the exchange:

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.”

Dickie goes on to quote 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.

For those unfamiliar, O'Brien's record on broadband is hardly impressive. He allowed the disastrous Verizon-Fairpoint fiasco that has resulted in a marked decline in telephone reliability while customers were regularly overcharged.

We should be thankful O'Brien was not in a position of authority one hundred years ago, to assure everyone that universal electrical grids were "not a possibility." The reality is that FTTH to everyone in Vermont is not only a possibility, it is a certainty barring the end of human civilization. The idea that Vermonters will use copper in 50 years to communicate is absurd.

The question is when Vermonters will have access to fiber-optic networks -- and policy decisions to shower private companies with grants to build wireless networks rather than using loans to allow communities to build FTTH networks (that will be directly accountable them) will only delay the inevitable. An almost universal wireless network is a step forward for a state so far behind in communications infrastructure; but it will not be the envy of the nation and its pathetic reliable and speeds will not drive economic development.

Overblown claims about the capabilities of wireless led to a press release and white paper from ECFiber, which admitted "Wireless is 'Better than Dial-up,'" while admonishing "Fiber is 'Future Proof.'"

Wireless fixed broadband is simply not good enough. It has been tried in Vermont and it doesn’t work very well (just ask any user) – the gap between wireless and fiber will only widen in the future.

The white paper is real reality check for those who believe wireless will solve America's broadband problems:

Vermont’s mountainous topography presents real challenges to wireless broadband (both fixed and mobile.) Many cell sites will be required to achieve reasonable theoretical coverage rates using standard propagation models. (N.B., DO most Vermonters want hundreds of new ridgeline cell sites 30 feet above treeline? And how will all these cells in remote locales be connected with fiber to the Internet?) This theoretical coverage will be significantly reduced by local factors, especially foliage.

There are many ECFiber pre-registrants that live in areas nominally “covered” by fixed wireless Internet service providers (“WISPs”) but are unable to access their services because of local topography or foliage constraints. Those that have access to fixed wireless acknowledge that it is “better than dial-up” but are not happy with the service’s reliability or speed. Advertised speeds are often not achieved (particularly for users on the edge of a cell site or without line-of-sight) and speeds drop significantly during busy hours.

Many have noted that they both need and desire to stream video over their broadband connection -- especially at the Vermont Law School. But the wireless broadband from VTel will almost certainly fail to do that reliably.

VTel's CEO told Vermont Public Radio that he would have loved to run fiber-optics through all of Vermont:

"But all of Vermont would cost a billion dollars and nobody was offering that."

No one should offer that!! We aren't talking about charity here. This is infrastructure! This is exactly how the private-sector mindset that fails to understand the nature of infrastructure. Broadband networks are not the product, they enable all other products. They are essential for commerce, as well as education, and soon for health care. Infrastructure should be paid for the public that benefits from it, as the roads are. And when the costs are too large for the community, the federal government can help with long term loans, and perhaps grants where essential.

ECFiber understands this. And while ECFiber would not have connected all of Vermont with a single broadband stimulus award, it would have solved the communications infrastructure problem for these 24 towns for at least one, and probably several more, generations. It would have expanded to cover more Vermonters, as we have seen community fiber networks do elsewhere recently (often with stimulus awards).

The supreme irony of the massive federal grant to VTel is that it may result in Vermonters having to wait longer to get universal access to real broadband. Any entity, public or private, will find it more difficult to pay for the costs of building a network in Vermont because the wireless network will provide good enough service for those with good line-of-sight to the towers. Having lost those customers, a proper network will have fewer potential takers, making it more difficult to justify the costs.

This was our concern when we first learned of the broadband stimulus program. Giving out grants to private companies who will provide "better than dial-up" service is an extremely poor use of our tax dollars. It solves no long term problem; it really makes the longer term problems more difficult to solve.

But what does VTel care? No one was going to pay them to build fiber to everyone anyway, right?

Fortunately, ECFiber is moving forward with a pilot project expected to break ground in the spring.

Photo courtesy of chensiyuan, used under Creative Commons license