After years of neglect by regional broadband giants, five years ago the town of Arrowsic, Maine decided to build their own broadband network on the back of federal grants and loans. 

Now regional broadband provider Fidium has targeted the small town of 477 with broadband expansion, after previously rejecting calls for better, more affordable service.

Critics say Fidium’s goal isn’t honest competition, but a bid to try to put the popular local municipal broadband network on shaky financial ground.

We first wrote about Arrowsic back in February of 2020, shortly after Governor Janet Mills announced that the town would be building its own fiber network after decades of frustration with spotty, expensive, or nonexistent service from large telecom giants like Consolidated Communications, which recently fully rebranded as Fidium.

The project was a partnership between a new Arrowsic Broadband Authority (ABA) and Axiom Technologies, heavily driven by a combined $1.2 million in grant and loan funding from the USDA's ReConnect Pilot Program. The goal: connect 237 households, 20 businesses, and four farms with symmetrical fiber optic service of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps).

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.

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“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.”

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.

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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).”

The Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) continues to make steady inroads bridging the state’s long standing digital divide on the back of federal grants and a public private-partnership between Lincoln County and Consolidated Communications (Fidum Fiber).

In January, Fidium announced it was beginning construction on the project, which should bring fiber connectivity to 8,300 homes and businesses.

The first phase of the project aims to expand fiber to the towns of Wiscasset, Whitefield, and Edgecomb, as well as parts of Alna and Westport Island. Partial Route 1 closures were required due to fiber installs.

Ultimately, the partnership is also intended to bring fiber access for the first time to Alna, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Dresden, Nobleboro, Southport, Waldoboro, and Woolwich, in neighboring Sagadahoc County.

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This project is being paid for by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, an MCA grant, and Consolidated Communications (Fidium Fiber). The funding was part of a broader $9.6 million in grant awards announced by the MCA last August, intended to bring fiber to 15,561 homes and businesses across 12 widely underserved communities in the Pine Tree state.

Lincoln County in particular saw a grant award of $6 million matched by $24.3 million in private and public investment – including county ARPA funds – which the MCA notes was the “highest percentage of financial commitment from any public-private partnership awarded through an MCA program to date.”

“We're thrilled to partner with Fidium to expand their fiber broadband network to our community,” Wiscasset Town Manager Dennis Simmons said of the opportunity.

Last October, Vermont CUD (Communications Utility District) Lamoille FiberNet greenlit a $25 million public partnership with Consolidated Communications. The goal: to finally bring affordable fiber broadband access to 4,170 locals in Lamoille County. Eight months later and locals say network construction is finally getting underway.

According to the Lamoille County News And Citizen, Consolidated trucks have started to appear in towns like Stowe, Johnson, Eden, Cambridge, Belvidere and Waterville as Phase 1 of the network build gets underway.

Consolidated crews plan to deploy more than 400 miles of fiber this summer, providing locals with speeds up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps).

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“It’s been a Herculean effort for more than three years, so we’re all very excited to see the trucks rolling this summer,” Lamoille FiberNet Executive Director Lisa Birmingham told the outlet.