Our country is blessed with a rich infrastructure - if you are talking about roads, electricity, and telephones. The Upper Valley in particular is behind the curve in access to reliable high-speed access.
Since 1994, when ValleyNet first introduced local dial-up internet access to the Upper Valley, part of its non-profit mission has been to advocate for universal and effective Internet access.
A universally-available high-speed service would offer great advantages to residents, as well as town governments, schools, businesses, and non-profit organizations, and would improve the region's attractiveness to high-tech industries and the home-based businesses on which the Upper Valley's economy increasingly relies. Many web services and new internet applications, particularly those which are video-based, are now effectively available only to broadband users.
Fiber-optic infrastructure directly to the home provides effectively unlimited capacity and has become practical over the last decade as the cost has fallen and capacity has increased.
All the pieces are coming into place to build a fiber-to-the-home network throughout the Upper Valley now. The state of Vermont is encouraging exactly such ventures. Towns are forming broadband committees at the behest of frustrated citizens. ValleyNet has begun drafting the legal documents and conceptualizing the governance mechanism necessary to build and operate a fiber-to-the-home network in the Upper Valley. And, private financing is available for such projects.
It is for these reasons that ValleyNet is working with ECFiber on a fiber-optic project for 23 towns in East Central Vermont.
We envisage that a successful project would quickly spread eastward across the river to New Hampshire. ValleyNet will continue to work with interested state and town organizations in both states to develop a plan for providing this same service on both sides of the Connecticut River.
