Ninety-six percent of unserved or underserved locations in Vermont are covered in applications for Vermont’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (VT-BEAD) Program, according to The Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB).
The application phase, which now is complete, reaches 95% of eligible locations with fiber. Vermont will receive an allocation of $228.9 million from the BEAD program.
Telecompetitor reached out to VCBB for details. VCBB Director of Broadband Projects Alexei Monsarrat said that there are 32 final project areas containing 16,895 unserved and underserved broadband serviceable locations (BSLs). He said that 44% of BSLs are covered by more than one application.
VCBB says that five broadband service providers are participating at this point, though they were not able to name the providers at this point. The VCBB will fulfill the BEAD requirement of serving all eligible locations in Vermont by reaching out to known providers to serve those not covered by a proposal. The portal closed last week.
The final costs are not yet clear, Monsarrat said. “The dollar value is hard to define since some entities submitted more than one proposal per area and we don’t yet know which we’ll select, and then we’ll also be negotiating, which will likely result in different final numbers,” he said. “I can say that we anticipate having enough funds to serve all U/U BSLs with our BEAD allocation.”
Like many other states, Vermont distinguishes between BEAD projects that are dominated by fiber and those using other technologies. Fiber generally is used where possible.
Last July, Telecompetitor spoke with VCBB Executive Director Christine Hallquist. She said that the Green Mountain State got a head start on its broadband deployment goals by creating communications union districts (CUDs) by law in 2021. CUDs aim to raise money to support high-speed broadband available through grants, debt and donations but not taxes.
Additional information about Vermont broadband, including state funding resources, awards made, BEAD news, state specific Telecompetitor coverage, and more can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
