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RECIPE INSIDE! JULY 15, 2021
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Desperately seeking broadband
‘I still can’t hear you’ No help in sight for cellphone deadzones
Matt Dodds of South Road has cobbled together a solution for his family’s high-speed internet needs using a satellite dish, Consolidated Communications service and custom-coded hardware to solve for intermittency issues. OBSERVER COURTESY PHOTO
Rural Williston residents hit roadblocks on the way to high-speed internet BY JASON STARR Observer staff Internet speeds for a swath of Williston’s rural residents are adequate for basic web browsing and emailing, but falter when it comes to live video streaming and gaming. After a year-plus of tele-work and remote schooling — with multiple members of a household needing online access at the same time — those shortcomings have become more acute. South Road resident Matt Dodds put on a full court press this spring to take advantage of federal coronavirus relief funding aimed at improving rural internet infrastructure. He organized a group of neighbors for a combined application to the “Line Extension Customer Assistance Program” (LECAP), hoping a group application would lower the cost for Comcast — which serves nearby neighborhoods with high-speed internet — to hook up South and Oak Hill roads. Established in the first round of federal coronavirus relief funds under the Trump Administration and administered by the Vermont Department of Public Service, LE-
CAP offers line extension grants of then hired a tech specialist to make up to $3,000 per household. South his Consolidated Communications Road residents abandoned their service kick in automatically when application in June after realizing Starlink goes out. So far, the systhat the grant would make only a tem is working. small dent in quotes from Comcast “It’s not at all cheap, but it sure that ranged beats the f r o m $16,000 $16,000 to price tag, $30,000 for less a a line exten$3,000 sion to their LECAP homes. reimburseRural ment,” he southern said. Wi l l i s t o n T h e —Matt Dodds, South Road is currently LECAP served by program Consolidathas granted ed Communications at less-than- out about half of its $1.2 million broadband speeds. allocation to roughly 200 homes “We banded ourselves togeth- statewide, according to Clay Purer and asked for an estimate from vis, director of telecommunicaComcast to bundle us all up,” tions at the Department of Public Dodds said. “Comcast said ‘you Service. A rule imposed by state guys don’t live close enough to- legislators limited each grant to gether to be bundled’ … which, $3,000. of course, is a classic ‘Catch 22’ “For a lot of people in Willis— we’re applying because we’re ton, the cost is a lot higher than rural and can’t get served because what our program is allowed to we live too far apart. When they pay out,” Purvis said. “I would break us all up, the pricing is as- love to increase the amount of the tronomical.” grant, but unfortunately we are Simultaneous to the LECAP capped at $3,000.” application, Dodds pursued other While the LECAP program is avenues. He put up a satellite dish set to sunset at the end of this year, from the company, Starlink, which a new, better-endowed internet has provided him high-speed in- connectivity effort is just underternet, but only intermittently. He way in Vermont, funded with $150
‘It is a classic ‘Catch 22’ we’re applying because we’re rural and can’t get served because we live too far apart.’
million from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The effort comes under the umbrella of the “Vermont Community Broadband Board” established by the Legislature this year. On Monday, Gov. Phil Scott announced the appointment of Christine Hallquist as the board’s executive director. Hallquist, who ran for governor against Scott in 2018, is the former CEO of the Vermont Electric Cooperative. The first meeting of the board will be on Aug. 9. “Expanding access to broadband is critical in a 21st century economy, and by increasing connectivity in rural and underserved areas in every corner of the state, we will take an important step toward increasing regional economic equity,” Scott said in a press release announcing Hallquist’s appointment. The funding will only support connections of top-of-the-line internet speed, according to Purvis. The networks of both Comcast and Consolidated Communications will have to be upgraded to be eligible for the program’s funds, he said. “It remains to be seen whether they expand to every location in a town,” Purvis said. “It’s up to the board to figure it out, and that will take time.”
In 2018, telecommunications staffers with the Vermont Department of Public Service drove the state’s back roads with multiple cell phones in the front seat mapping cell service dead zones. The map they created was designed to dispute claims Verizon had made to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about its cellular coverage in Vermont. The FCC had asked cell companies to provide the maps as a way to target federal funding to cover dead zones. As a result of the state’s challenge, the FCC “determined the maps were so bad that they couldn’t rely on them, so they dropped the program,” said Clay Purvis, director of telecommunications at the Vermont Department of Public Service. “So we outsmarted ourselves.” Since then, the FCC has invested in the rollout of 5G (fifth generation) cell service, at the expense of trying to improve rural dead zones, Purvis said. Some areas of Vermont continue to have absolutely no cell service. Purvis notes that the ability to make mobile phone calls is a public safety issue. “Vermont badly needs expanded cell coverage,” he said. “It’s a very important issue and I hope it’s something we address.” Purvis said the Vermont Legislature has instead targeted federal funds to expand high-speed internet service (see related story, page 1) because “it’s a problem they see as much more readily solvable.” Meanwhile, the 5G cell network is not yet available in Vermont, even if your phone says it’s on 5G, Purvis said. “We don’t have 5G anywhere yet,” he said. It’s also unclear whether the 5G upgrade will improve the state’s cellular dead zones, which are a result of Vermont’s undulating topography. Matt Dodds, a resident of South Road in Williston, said his cell service has deteriorated over the past year. “The question will be what we need to do in rural areas,” Purvis said. — Jason Starr