Vermont’s Otter Creek Communications Utility District (CUD) says it has completed its ambitious fiber deployment, bringing affordable access to more than 6,000 homes and businesses in the Rutland County region of the Green Mountain State.
Otter Creek is another example of the way Vermont’s long under-served communities are bonding together via innovative new partnerships taking direct aim at the digital divide.
When last we had checked in on Otter Creek CUD, the CUD had just received a $9.9 million grant by the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB). Otter Creek CUD then leveraged that grant funding to form a public-private partnership with Consolidated Communications.
Otter Creek CUD Chair Laura Black tells ILSR that the partnership involved 335 miles of new fiber passing *6,000 locations. Of the total target reach, 1290 locations had never had broadband access previously. Between the Otter Creek grant awards and contributions from private providers, more than $24 million has been invested in Rutland County to expand fiber access.
“We partnered with the existing ILEC business in most of our area, Consolidated Communications, to build and operate the fiber network with both their own contribution and grant funding we were able to secure,” Black said. “As well, a portion of our area was peeled off to allow the ILEC in three of the towns in our District to be served by the existing small ILEC business – Shoreham Telephone – under their own grant funding program (EACAM).”
Consolidated, under its Fidium Fiber brand, offers locals symmetrical fiber at 100 megabit per second (Mbps); 300 Mbps; 1 gigabit per second (Gbps); and 2 Gbps speed tiers, with pricing that can vary by market but is usually lower than most regional monopolies.
“This isn’t just an infrastructure project, this is a rural development project,” VCBB Deputy Director Rob Fish said of the Otter Creek expansion last fall. “As time goes on, yes, we are seeing how fiber brings education, telehealth and remote learning opportunities, but that is just the first step. Fiber is going to help Vermonters age in place, it's going to have implications for our clean energy future, it is a tool that can help us revitalize Vermont communities now and in the future.”
CUDs: New Alliances To Solve Very Old Problems
Like so many U.S. states, Vermont was heavily dominated by private regional phone and cable monopolies that historically never tried very hard to compete. This overall lack of competition results in spotty access, slow speeds, high prices, and substandard customer service – and lots of lip service from politicians who tend to downplay market failure.
Enter CUDs.
CUDs are defined as a new municipal entity created by two or more towns with a goal of collaboratively building communication infrastructure.
Vermont lawmakers first created the legal framework for CUDs to operate in 2015.
In Vermont, municipally-led CUDs can legally fund needed broadband expansions through debt, grants, and donations – but not taxes, though they themselves are tax-exempt nonprofits.
They’re currently helping long neglected Vermont towns deploy affordable fiber networks that may have not been financially or logistically successful if attempted alone.
In 2021 the state passed Act 71 to help ensure that CUDs were a cornerstone of the state’s efforts to bridge the digital divide. Act 71 also established the VCBB, which is tasked with coordinating, facilitating, and accelerating the development and implementation of universal community broadband solutions.
Much of Vermont’s $150 million ARPA-based broadband package went toward assisting CUDs in a state where 85 percent of municipalities and 90 percent of all underserved locations fall under an existing CUD’s jurisdiction. Currently, 9 Vermont CUDs are busy making inroads on fiber deployments, down from 10 CUDs after a recent merger between NEK Broadband & CVFiber.
Vermont is currently ranked 31st in BroadbandNow’s state rankings of Internet coverage, speed and availability. Consolidated’s focus on partnering with regional CUDs is making steady progress in disrupting the state’s service and competition logjam, and now serves 134,000 homes and businesses across the Green Mountain State.
According to Black, Otter Creek has finished what it set out to accomplish and has no plans to expand service.
“We built out to 100% of our Universal Service Plan which means to every address eligible for the grant funding,” Black said. “However, our partner, Consolidated Communications is applying for additional funding to build nineteen out to additional addresses with BEAD funds. Most of the nineteen addresses are off-grid, which were ineligible under Otter Creek's Grant.”
In the interim the 100% volunteer-run Otter Creek CUD says it’s working on helping freshly-connected local subscribers with any problems that may arise.
“Otter Creek CUD still has a presence and is active in serving our constituents by assisting our constituents with any difficulties or questions they have in obtaining and/or maintaining their service, and reviewing network and customer service performance of our business partners to ensure compliance with our contract agreements,” Black said.
The results have been transformative for state residents long underserved or completely unserved by the state’s regional incumbent monopoly providers. Locals at times have likened the transformation to moving out of the “dark ages.”
“Our partnership with the Otter Creek CUD is an incredible example of how collaboration is key to achieving universal service as quickly as possible,” Fidium Fiber VP Jeffrey Austin says of the partnership. “We’re proud of this effort and look forward to continuing to build a future with fiber throughout Vermont.”
*This story has been updated to correct the number of locations passed. It was originally reported as 28,000 locations passed. It is actually 6,000, as 28,000 is the total number of passings by Consolidated in the entire county of Rutland, which includes the 6,000 in the Otter Creek CUD
Header image of Rutland City, Vermont courtesy of Ken Lund on Flickr, Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
Inline image of Benson, VT village story courtesy of NNECAPA Photo Library on Flickr, Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic
