May 27, 2011

FCC report ranks Vermont 38th in broadband access

FCC report ranks Vermont 38th in broadband access:

Read the story and you will find that our neighbor, New Hampshire, is at the top of the national list for broadband access. One more feather in NH's cap.

The highlighted statement by Chris Campbell suggests that at the national level some kind of subsidy plan is brewing to increase the rate of broadband adoption. I wonder how that will be paid for? I suspect that subsidies will flow to broadband providers in sparsely populated areas just as was the case for POTS service in the pre-Internet days.


"While the IBDR states that 60 percent of Vermont households have broadband, another FCC report released the same day, the Seventh Broadband Progress Report and Order on Reconsideration states that broadband is available to 93 percent of the state’s population. Roughly 33 percent of the population of Vermont has access to broadband, but does not use it.

The goal, Campbell [Executive Director of Vermont Telecommunications Authority], is 100 percent coverage and 100 percent adoption.

“There is a conversation that has begun at the national level about ‘how do we make sure that people can afford to have access to this technology?’” Campbell said."


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