Vermont Visionary: Rural Fiber Perfectly Economical'Building a hub in a cow pasture is cheaper than doing it downtown...' 12:18PM Wednesday Apr 30 2008 by Karltags: Fiber · alternatives · municipalDr. Timothy Nulty is the director of ValleyFiber, a nonprofit organization focused on bringing municipal fiber to towns in rural Vermont. According to the project FAQ, they're helping to bring symmetrical 8Mbps, VoIP and TV to rural areas, using private financing (a fifteen year non-recourse capital lease) where the towns aren't on the hook in the case of default. From the website: The capital lease would be arranged between a regional telecommunications association (a financing vehicle representing the towns involved in the project) and the outside private financier. The towns would not need to float municipal bonds for the funding. The private financier would own the network until the capital lease has been paid off. Given Verizon just sold their Vermont network to Fairpoint communications, who plans to stick with DSL, this may be the only fiber connectivity many Vermont residents are ever able to get. Nulty tells Telephony Online that the common belief that fiber isn't economical to deploy in rural areas is "nonsense." Nulty was the architect of a municipal fiber plan in Burlington that's on track to become cash positive next year: Nulty helped oversee the municipal FTTP network in Burlington Vermont, which is on track to become fully cash-flow positive (with revenue exceeding all costs, including debt service) by January 2009, four years after it secured initial financing. He left his position as general manager of Burlington Telecom to try to duplicate its success elsewhere in Vermont. Vermont spends about $1600 per home connecting subscribers in the city, and about $1800 per home in rural areas. Passing homes is more expensive in the country ($1100) than in the city ($250) because of geography, but Nulty says passing homes is "a small part of the overall cost of fiber deployment," and they see higher take rates in rural communities because there's no competition (or often no service at all).
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jhawk44
join:2006-10-19
Boston, VA | Cue The city people on 15 meg connections who say "Why should farmers get internet? GIVE ME MOAR SPEEDZ". | |
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jhawk44
join:2006-10-19
Boston, VA | Re: Naulty is Nutty Well it seems he's already done this in another area of Vermont. So it's more than just talk. | |
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MattE
Obama '08
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC |  Wait for it ....
On a more serious note, I wonder why more muni's don't attempt to obtain private financing? | |
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DaSneaky1D
Tell me, where is your father?
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-29
The Lou
 ·Charter Pipeline
| Re: Wait for it .... Muni networks fail.
More private funding for what? To try to run a network that they neither have the long term vision nor support to run?
I don't see anything wrong with local governments wanting to deliver services to their own residents. What I have seen, however, it a failure of anything not run by a business to succeed. The focus a business can give in deploying, developing, and progressing an infrastructure like this is above and beyond what any government in the US can come close to.
Case in point, look at UTOPIA. They were a customer's dream 3-4 years ago. Look at them now. Barely staying afloat. Is it the network? The advertising? The execution? Who knows, but the reality is, something didn't work...and they had everything handed to them on a silver platter...and failed.
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:: my trivial ramblings :: | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·Cox HSI
 ·AT&T Southwest
| Re: Wait for it .... said by DaSneaky1D  :Is it the network? The advertising? The execution? Their competition trying hard to knock them out? (Yes)......and they had everything handed to them on a silver platter...and failed. Explain how they had ANYTHING handed to them. They've had to do everything from scratch, all the while fighting roadblocks and red-tape every step of the way. That hardly sounds like having anything handed to them to me.
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
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ansar
Search for HighSpeed
join:2004-12-10
Utica, MS | Sign me up :) I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by $1800 a house, but I would fork over 2 grand for a good connection. Another option to me would be for me to pay higher monthly fees for x amount of years to cover the costs. | |
| | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Navarre, FL
·Mediacom
| Re: Sign me up :) said by ansar :I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by $1800 a house, but I would fork over 2 grand for a good connection. You are willing to foot the bill, but is every other citizen in your community? | |
| | | BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Everett, MA
clubs:
·Comcast Formerly ..
| Re: Sign me up :) If I could get 100 meg in each direction in the middle of no where or in the suburbs where I'd have a bit more room then 3 rooms for $380 K hell sign me up and id be willing to pay $100 a month. Id love to be able to telecommute to work. But then again a lot of companies don't seem to want people to telecommute.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
| | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Navarre, FL
·Mediacom
| Re: Sign me up :) That wasn't my question. Just because you are willing to pay a large upfront cost and a relatively high recurring cost, doesn't mean everyone else is...hence making these kind of muni plans financially challenging. It's also why you don't see the corporate world rolling out 100 Mbps duplex connections to the middle of nowhere, let alone the suburbs. It doesn't make financial sense. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| Send in the Lawyers! Lock on the lawsuits, and FIRE .... Can't have towns and co-ops and non-profits competing with private mega-corps... *It's not fair*.....
.... Even if the Mega-corps don't WANT the business, they sure don't want examples to succeed, either..... people in other areas might catch on!
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
| | | | EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA | FairPoint Note that this is announced soon after Vermont's friendly local incumbent changed from wealthy megagiant Verizon to tiny debt-ridden FairPoint, who may very well not have the resources to try and stop them... good timing. | |
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NEKVT
@sover.net
| Burlington Telecom Still Running Below Goal... and... 25-tow »www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps···316/1009
and... 25-town consortium denied funding by state
A fledgling 25-town consortium hoping to establish a high-speed Internet network has been rejected for funding by the Vermont Telecommunications Authority. The authority approved a $25,000 planning grant for the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network, but the group’s request for up to $8 million in state revenue bonds to back the project was denied.
Burlington Free Press , April 22, 2008 | |
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BeRealFiberBoy
@bellsouth.net
|  Yankee Utopia?
Where there is no high speed internet, and only dial up, I completely agree something needs to be done, but i'd be curious to know if this vermont community ever looked into a wireless ISP, local provider? It's not fiber, but I can't understand how they can rationally make a business case when you add the cost of video programming, maintenance of fiber networks, pole attachments, CPE, maintenance technical staff, etc.
Good luck getting taxpayers to support this initiative! Your tax dollars are spent better on schools and roads, and let the private sector work!!! | |
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Wilds of Vermont
@uu.net
| Re: Yankee Utopia? Raleigh is not Vermont. You would have to go west in NC to appreciate a rural mountain environment. And yes our town has looked into a wireless ISP who has failed to deploy a working service. Not just my town, but in other towns across Vermont. Wireless didn't cut it. So it has to be either copper or fiber.
And yes, we looked into a local provider. It became Burlington Telecom. And the we Vermonters have already supported the next step by voting to join together under the ILA briefly touched on above. Tax Dollars are not involved, which is even better. So we are looking forward to cooking on glass...  | |
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olie
@sover.net
|  community fiber net works its a local thing!
It will bring the word local back to local control. Over the years we have slowly watched as the Big M has taken away local control. Now combine big business and state government and watch how they try to stop the grass roots effort for community owned networks. community owned is just that - the local community is in control of the network - not big business or state government- Will the state gov/ big business be able to offer 1 gig to the house with wireless - I don't think so - will they be able to offer 3g services along with that - I don't think so- but if the community runs the network they can make sure they get 1 gig to the house. Big business is looking at ways to limit bandwidth, do you have any control over that ? nope. But you would have a say over it if it was owned by you the taxpayer on a community owned network.
If the network turns a profit, picture what the towns can do with the money. Just maybe put it towards education - (oh I forgot that is what act 60/68/ and all the other great ideas the state came up with was for)
Lets start helping bring back local control by supporting Community owned networks and prove to the state that locals can do this and help turn around the failing economy at the same time | |
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