In 2019, the Vermont Department of Public Service found that nearly a quarter of Vermont addresses lacked service that met federal broadband speed benchmarks (25/3 megabits per second or Mbps). The COVID-19 pandemic only underscored the urgent need in a state that has consistently ranked near the bottom of connectivity comparisons over the past decade. Vermonters saw a lack of interest from private providers to invest in the sparsely populated rural state and recognized that communities needed to address the problem themselves.
To help communities organize to address their broadband needs, Vermont turned to an existing model in the state: a Communications Union District (CUD). Like the utility districts that communities across the country have relied on to build water or electricity infrastructure, CUDs are formal partnerships between multiple cities to build communications infrastructure. Where a single community may struggle to meet its broadband needs, CUDs can create larger, more viable markets and allow cities to share resources and raise funds. They are governed by a board made up of volunteer residents from member cities to ensure responsiveness to community needs. Through these CUDs, Vermonters in 216 of the state’s 252 cities are combining forces to improve broadband access for their communities. It is, as state Rep. Laura Sibilia (I – Windham-Bennington) puts it, “neighbors providing services to neighbors.”
Communications Union Districts
CUDs are organizations of two or more local governments that come together to build telecommunications infrastructure together. CUDs are similar to regional utility districts that provide other essential services, such as water and sewer infrastructure, to primarily rural communities. CUDs aggregate demand across multiple cities, making market dynamics more feasible and efficient. Additionally, because the regional district owns or oversees the infrastructure, projects may have longer payback periods. And while CUDs can’t tap into the property tax authority of member cities, they can tap into the municipal bond market to raise money.
Vermont’s first CUD began as a limited liability company. In 2008, 23 towns in East Central Vermont voted to form ECFiber to build a community-owned, open access network that would provide fiber-to-the-home service. Community members (the network’s future customers) were the network’s original investors.
Stan Williams and FX Flinn, who were instrumental in starting ECFiber, recount how it was difficult to raise additional funds to build the network because they found their then-novel “intra-local contract” was difficult to explain to lenders. They lobbied for the creation of CUD as a legal framework so they could have more credibility in the municipal bond market. Vermont lawmakers formalized the CUD model in 2015, transforming ECFiber into a CUD.
Law 71 opens the door to the expansion of CUDs
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed Vermont to commit significant resources to CUDs. Recognizing the great need for broadband, State Representative Sibilia co-sponsored Act 71 in 2021 to accelerate the development of community broadband. Act 71 established the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) as an entity to support the formation of CUDs and channel emergency funds that were available. The legislation also relaxed the rules for forming CUDs. Before the law, member cities had to vote at a municipal assembly to form a CUD. But after the approval of Law 71, a CUD could be formed by the vote of the municipal board itself.
Law 71 recognized the needs for community action and mutual aid at the municipal level. At its core, the legislation focuses on universality and accountability, with the state positioning CUDs as “unofficial providers of last resort” and positioning them (with hundreds of millions in future broadband infrastructure funding) as the central vehicles through which the State aims to achieve universal broadband service. Additionally, Act 71 went beyond federal broadband benchmark speeds and set the goal of symmetrical 100/100 Mbps service.
There are currently ten CUDs in various stages of operation. Of Vermont’s 252 municipalities, 216 participate in a CUD, representing 76 percent of the state’s population and 93 percent of residences that did not have adequate broadband in 2023.
In addition to ECFiber, three other CUDs (NEK Broadband, DVFiber and CVFiber) had started offering broadband service by 2023, and the other six districts are in various phases of network planning and design.
Community-driven solutions focused on the public good
Vermont is a small state, made up largely of small towns; Burlington, its largest city, has fewer than 45,000 residents. A smaller scale of operations has been crucial to the development and operation of this community-driven solution.
“Vermontiness” and volunteering
The most important factor in the success of Vermont’s CUD model has been the dedication and passion of its community leaders.
As community-driven solutions, CUDs require the energy, enthusiasm and expertise of their citizen members to function. CUD representatives highlight the critical importance of community participation. The CUDs are governed by entirely voluntary boards, made up of representatives from each of the member cities. Few CUDs have paid staff, and when they do, it is most often a single executive director. Volunteers can contribute anything from a few hours each week to treating their CUD responsibilities like a second full-time job.
VCBB is administering nearly $250 million in American Rescue Plan Act grants to CUDs and will also oversee the $229 million in federal BEAD funds allocated to Vermont.
Anticipating the limitations of volunteerism, Act 71 created the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) with the goal of not only administering grants available through pandemic relief funds and the federal Jobs and Investment Act. in Infrastructure, but also to provide the professional support that CUDs need. VCBB Executive Director Christine Hallquist works to thread the needle between volunteer engagement (which can ensure responsiveness to ground realities) and ensuring CUDs have the professional and technical expertise they need.
Ensure supplier responsibility
Partly due to the limits of volunteerism and partly due to the composition of the markets, many CUDs have looked to existing ISPs as partners to serve their regions. The terms of these partnerships differ in each case, as described in the report, but even CUDs do not build or manage the networks themselves; district leadership focuses on a strong and enforceable commitment to accountability to their member cities. , no matter who your provider is. partner is.
A key to a district’s success is its ability to find strong, community-minded providers willing to form partnerships. These partners have tended to be smaller suppliers. Some CUDs have adopted a “contractual liability” approach, which may include mechanisms such as quarterly service reviews, outage reporting requirements, or attendance at board meetings when requested.
Focus on the public good
CUDs are building these networks for and with their neighbors, sharing resources and advice. There is a collective sense of responsibility, a focus on the public good, that has been the driving force behind this progress.
While momentum in recent years has seen significant changes in the short term, broadband advocates in the state have taken a long-term view. As the Vermont Telecommunications Ten-Year Plan highlights, Vermont positioned itself as a remote work destination even before the pandemic, offering $10,000 incentives for remote workers to move to the state. Additionally, the state expects and plans for climate change-driven immigration and seeks to build resilient and scalable networks to meet the needs of a changing Vermont.
Exporting the Vermont model
Other states are also adopting or considering a regional utility district model. Maine and New Hampshire appear to be the furthest along in following in Vermont’s footsteps. Like the VCBB, the State of Maine Broadband Office is providing well-designed planning grants, early technical assistance, creatively designed financial assistance, and other tools to communities.
While the critical work done by broadband advocates and CUD drivers in the state generated a unique constellation of energies, much of what made Vermonters seek a community-driven solution is present elsewhere :
- rurality,
- declining populations (especially young people),
- a culture of independent thinking,
- strong ties with surrounding communities,
- understanding that better access to broadband can also mean better access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities, and
- the collective feeling of being stuck with suppliers more interested in shareholder returns than community priorities.
Vermont’s experience can offer lessons hard-learned over the years for rural communities across the country that are only now evaluating their options and preparing for BEAD investments in the years ahead.
Read more about Vermont’s broadband history in Neighborly Networks: Vermont’s Approach to Community Broadband, a new publication from the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
Ry Marcattilio is associate director of research for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative. He is interested in the democratizing power of technology, systems engineering, and the history of science, technology, and medicine. Previously, Ry worked as an adjunct professor of American history in Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Minnesota. Ry has a Ph.D. in American History from Oklahoma State University.
Revati Prasad is the vice president of programs for the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society and oversees the Institute’s research and programmatic work, including the Marjorie & Charles Benton Opportunity Fund scholarship program. Dr. Prasad has a Ph.D. in Communication from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPA from the School of Public and International Affairs at Columbia University.
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