Vermont Telecom Authority Awards Broadband Grant to FairPoint
Montpelier - The Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) has announced an award to FairPoint Communications in the amount of $330,200 to expand broadband services in 3 Vermont communities. An additional 44 locations in Barnet, Ryegate and Rochester will have access to broadband at speeds of 5 Mbps because of the project, meeting the grant’s requirement to offer a combined upload and download speed of 5 Mbps, with a minimum upload of 1 megabit per second. The project is scheduled to be completed prior to December 31, 2013.
“This new award is being made to FairPoint as the company completes its last VTA grant-funded project ahead of schedule,” said VTA Executive Director Christopher Campbell. “This project will provide new service in areas that have presented real challenges for broadband providers.”
“FairPoint has invested nearly $100 million and added 1,100 miles of new fiber across Vermont to build a first-class broadband network and bring high-speed access to thousands more Vermonters,” said Mike Smith, Vermont state president for FairPoint. “We’re proud of the unprecedented effort FairPoint has made to make Governor Shumlin’s Connect VT initiative a success.”
The grant to FairPoint will help fund the expansion of DSL broadband service to areas targeted in its grant application. Credit card billing service and systems will be implemented by the MSG Group. In Barnet new service will be available along all or portions of the following roads: County Hill Road, Keyser Hill Road and Kitchel Hill. In Ryegate new service will be along all or portions of Boltonville Road and Mclure Road. In Rochester new service will be along all or portions of Brook Street, March Brook Road, Middle Hollow Road, North Hollow Road, North View Drive, Anderson Lane, Campbell, Road, Jerusalem Hill, Liberty Hill, and Rocky Road.
The VTA made the award through the broadband grant round it announced on March 13, 2012. This grant program provides incentives to broadband providers to reach the most rural locations. Funding for the grant program was made possible by an appropriation of the Legislature in the FY2012-2013 Capital Budget requested by Governor Peter Shumlin as part of the Connect VT initiative.
The list of locations eligible for the grant program was compiled using data that was collected from providers through Vermont’s Broadband Mapping Initiative. Vermonters are invited to help complete the dataset of unserved locations by reporting unserved addresses at BroadbandVT.org.