Vermont’s Otter Creek Communications Union District not only recently finished its major fiber deployment, CUD leaders say the project came in significantly under budget, saving Vermont state leaders more than $3 million in taxpayer dollars. That money will now be redirected toward efforts to make access more affordable for state residents.
As we recently reported, Otter Creek CUD completed a major fiber expansion project that brought affordable fiber to 3,626 locations, including 1,278 previously unserved addresses across heavily rural parts of the Rutland County region of the Green Mountain State.
The project was funded by a $10 million grant by the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB). Between the Otter Creek grant awards and contributions from private providers, more than $24 million was invested in Rutland County to expand fiber access.
In a new announcement, Otter Creek CUD officials say the build, made possible by a lot of hard work by local volunteers, ultimately came in more than $3 million under budget, money CUD leaders say will now be used to improve network quality and affordability.
“We are so proud of this tremendous accomplishment,” VCBB Executive Director Christine Hallquist said of the project. “It’s a great example of how Vermonters can benefit from the local leadership of CUDs in negotiating with private telecoms.”
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.
CUDs like Otter Creek are currently helping long neglected Vermont towns deploy affordable fiber networks that may have not been financially or logistically successful if attempted alone. Otter Creek CUD is technically comprised of the Vermont towns of Benson, Brandon, Castleton, Chittenden, Fair Haven, Goshen, Hubbardton, Mendon, Pawlet, Pittsford, Poultney, Rutland Town, Rutland City, Shrewsbury, Sudbury, Wells, West Rutland, and West Haven.
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.
“This is an example of a CUD strategically reviewing the current level of service in their area, acknowledging the best course of action was to partner with the existing telecom providers serving most addresses, and then holding them accountable to the community,” Hallquist said of Otter Creek.
Vermont’s CUD revolution has so far been transformative for state residents long underserved or completely unserved by the state’s regional incumbent monopoly providers, which often lack regulatory or market pressure to compete on coverage, speed, price, or customer service. Locals at times have likened the transformation to moving out of the “dark ages.”
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.
“I want to thank all of the volunteer Otter Creek member town representatives as well as our volunteer treasurer for their commitment to the Otter Creek CUD Governing Board to make this project happen,” said Laura Black, OCCUD Chair. “The team at Consolidated, the team at GoNetspeed and the VCBB staff have all been great to work with throughout the project; finally making high-speed broadband accessible to our constituents of the district’s eighteen municipalities.”
The $3 million in unspent funds will be redirected to the VCBB’s new Affordable Long Drop Program, which aims to improve broadband affordability by providing grants to eligible providers to cover connection costs for long or nonstandard drops, including underground installations.
Inline image of Rutland City, Vermont courtesy of Ken Lund on Flickr, Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
