The Vermont Attorney General has approved a proposal to wire Jericho, Westford and Underhill for broadband with fiber optic cable. It’s not wireless but it’s still good to see.The Vermont Attorney General has approved a proposal to wire Jericho, Westford and Underhill for broadband with fiber optic cable. It’s not wireless but it’s still good to see.
The attorney general’s review was necessary to insure the project met the test of state statutes and was necessary before the three cities could seek funding. The network will bring phone, TV and high-speed Internet service to Chittenden County, one of Vermont’s more sparsely populated regions.
Voters approved the network in March. It is expected to cost about $8 million. A story in the Burlington Free Press quotesUnderhill Selectboard Chairman Steve Walkerman: “We took the initiative. We’re not going to wait around for the other guys to do it. We’re very confident that this is financially feasible.”
Click here to read the story.
You need to get your facts a little straight.
Chittenden County is Vermont’s *most* pupulated county, where nearly half of the state’s residents reside. The towns of Jericho, Underhill, and Westford are the less populated towns in the county, as they are situated on the bottom slope of Mount Mansfield, the state’s highest mountain.
These towns have become more populated in recent years, as people have been building out from Burlington, to avoid the increasing prices of real estate closer to Lake Champlain and to live closer to the ski areas on the mountain.
It is a typical scenario — low population density and rough New England terrain. It will be a long time before there is any return on investment seen on $8M, and costs and timeframe will only increase as the NIMBY crowd and Act 250 begin their complaints about the installation process.