The Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB), the new state board charged with overseeing broadband development in the state, recently approved DVFiber's $4.1 million grant request.
The funding comes through the provisions of the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), and is being awarded through the VCBB to provide universal access to high-speed Internet.
With the grant, DVFiber says it can now move ahead with its partner, Great Works Internet, Inc. (GWI) of Biddeford, Maine, to secure high-speed broadband access for its 24 member towns.
According to a news release, the funding enables DVFiber “to proceed with the design and engineering of a high-speed fiber optic network that will reach all unserved and underserved homes and businesses within its 24 member towns.”
This funding includes “preparation of a high-level detailed design, engineering, and preparation of utility poles in the Phase I towns” - Halifax, Marlboro, Readsboro, Stamford, Wardsboro, and Whitingham - which have the “most unserved and underserved addresses” of the member municipalities.
DVFiber says it expects to connect with the organization's first customers by the second half of 2022, to expand construction to most other areas in 2023, and to complete construction to all unserved and underserved premises by the end of 2024.
“I am so proud of the work of our volunteers who wrote this grant application,” said Ann Manwaring, chair of the DVFiber Governing Board, who said the pre-construction activities funded in the grant “will serve as the basis for our next grant, covering actual construction of fiber to homes and businesses.”
DVFiber says it will apply to the VCBB in early 2022 for additional federal funding to begin Phase I network construction as soon as possible.
Phase II construction - which includes the towns of Brattleboro, Brookline, Dover, Dummerston, Guilford, Jamaica, Londonderry, Newfane, Putney, Searsburg, Stratton, Townshend, Vernon, Westminster, Weston, Wilmington, Windham, and Winhall - will follow immediately thereafter.
ValleyNet, the nonprofit organization that created ECFiber in east-central Vermont, has partnered with GWI to provide construction management, network operations, and customer Internet access to DVFiber, according to ValleyNet Board Chair Carol Monroe.
Monroe said ValleyNet “brings [Communications Union District] and local operations expertise, and GWI will provide the resources and talent of a larger telecommunications organization.”
“The pre-construction grant funding will be helpful in reducing the costs of this powerful, fiber-to-the-premise universal access network,” she added.