Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Vermont towns look to join Internet fast lane with wireless broadband]

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2003 02:57:12 -0400

Vermont towns look to join the Internet fast lane

By ROBIN PALMER
 Staff Writer

August 30, 2003

With high-speed Internet service still lacking in rural areas of the state,
Vermont towns can, and are, taking matters into their own hands.
 Many communities are attempting to go wireless thanks to a little help from
the Vermont Council of Rural Development. (http://www.sover.net/~vcrd/)

The council is surveying communities to determine the level of interest in
high-speed, or broadband, Internet. The council is also working with
communities and vendors to implement services.

"The model is, if the community feels like they're under-served, the Vermont
Council on Rural Development is willing to support them ." said Laura Duey,
a Burke consultant working with the council.

A survey of the Northeast Kingdom is already complete. One small community
there, Island Pond, population 1,350, is pushing ahead with plans to bring
broadband to local residences and businesses.

The Brighton Community Forum, (See http://ravenhollow.net/bcf/) Island Pond'
s nonprofit economic development group, hopes to form a cooperative and
implement the wireless technology, which involves placing a 3-foot antenna
in a church steeple or a tall building.

Jake Marsh, an Island Pond resident and software engineer, is chairman of
the Brighton Community Forum broadband committee.

"Around the country this is quite a popular movement," Marsh said.

There are "wireless communities" in more than 30 states and many foreign
countries. Marsh said The Kingdom Connection, an Internet service provider
in St. Johnsbury, installed a system in Barton. Orleans also has fixed
wireless. Internet provider SoVerNet of Bellows Falls is working with
another Vermont wireless provider, LastMileNet.com, to bring wireless
broadband to the town of Londonderry, according to SoVerNet spokesman Peter
Stolley.

Marsh said, "My prediction is that in five years the number of wireless
connections will equal the number of hardware connections in this country."

In Island Pond, a fixed wireless system would include a dedicated phone
line, called a T1 line, which would bring a high-speed link to the
community. A small wireless antennae would then broadcast the service to
homes and businesses.

It's an expensive proposition for a small town, but one that could work out
to be a cheap alternative.

The wireless equipment will run from $50,000 to $70,000. The equipment could
come from an Israeli vendor, Alvarion Corp.
(http://www.alvarion.com/RunTime/HomePage.asp) Marsh said. The Island Pond
community hopes to receive a grant to cover the cost of the equipment.

The T1 line will cost $1,250 a month. Subscribers will share that cost. "It'
s going to take a number of subscribers to pay that much," he said.

Fifty subscribers would be the break-even point. Businesses would pay $130 a
month and residents would be charged $30 a month for a high-speed link and
the staff and maintenance costs associated with running the service, such as
staff and maintenance, Marsh said.

The cost and effort is worth it for Island Pond, Marsh said.

"Everyday more and more business is conducted over the Internet. I hardly
ever go to the library or crack a book anymore (to research a topic). I go
to a search engine," Marsh said. "Most of our town businesses have expressed
a real need to have high-speed connectivity."

Island Pond's biggest industry is tourism and snowmobilers, he said. More
and more, visitors from out-of-state with laptops in tow are demanding
high-speed links to the Net, Duey said. "The nicer inns are starting to feel
the pressure from their clientele," she said.

Others businesses in rural Vermont are also demanding service.

In its survey of the Northeast Kingdom, Duey said the Vermont Council of
Rural Development found a contractor who missed an online bid deadline
because a low-speed dial-up connection didn't deliver the contractor's bid
in time.

"There's a lot of businesses (in) which having bandwidth is very useful," sh
e said.

The state's Public Service Department encourages more broadband in Vermont.

"It really is a telecommunications service of greater and greater
importance," said state telecommunications planner Christopher Campbell. "It
's become an expected part of everyday life and we can't afford not to have
that tool available to us in the state of Vermont."

There are other broadband alternatives to wireless technology.

Broadband is a term for a high bandwidth Internet connection - one that can
transmit or download information up to 40 times faster than a standard
dialup connection. A standard dialup connection receives information at 56
kilobits per second. Broadband can reach speeds up to 1.54 megabits per
second.

Broadband can come from cable and phone lines, where available. Cable is
available primarily in town centers in Vermont. Adelphia Cable offers a
product called Power Link.

Some smaller phone companies, such as Vermont Telephone Co. (VTel) in
southern Vermont and Waitsfield Telecom in the Mad River Valley, have
brought DSL, or high-speed digital subscriber line, service to the state,
Campbell said.

Verizon offers DSL service in Burlington, Bennington, Brattleboro,
Montpelier, Rutland, White River Junction,Waterbury, Essex Junction, Grand
Isle, Milton, Shelburne, Winooski, Barre, Middlesex, St. Johnsbury, Swanton,
Manchester, Stowe, Newport, Underhill, St. Albans, Richford, East Fairfield
and Enosburg Falls, said Joan Jamieson, Verizon vice president of public
affairs in Vermont.

"We do have plans to keep moving DSL further out in Vermont. Demand has been
pretty good for DSL," Jamieson said. "We hear from people, 'When are you
coming to our town?'"

Basic residential DSL service from Verizon starts at $34.95 a month. Verizon
spokeswoman Briana Gowing, reached in Texas, said demand is up because
games, such as Sony Playstation, are now online. Music, movie and digital
pictures also download faster with broadband.

DSL does have a limited range. Nationally, Verizon is trying fixed wireless
as a way of expanding its range, Gowing said.

Internet providers are also getting into the DSL game. SoVerNet started in
1995 with the hope of bringing a dialup connection to the southern part of
the state, Stolley said.

"We were met with such a demand, we were statewide by the end of the first
year," he said. The company wanted 500 customers that first year; it had
those in a month, he said.

It now offers DSL and telephone services to business customers in St.
Albans, Randolph, Rochester and Bethel; and DSL to both residential and
business customers in 15 other larger communities. Business services starts
at $70 a month. Residential customers pay $29.95.

Other technology is available anywhere in the state, but it is costly. "If
you can get satellite TV, you can get satellite Internet," Duey said. But,
she said, "It's not terribly useful and it's expensive."

There's an initial fee of several hundred dollars per connection and then a
monthly charge of $75-80 a month, she said. Nationally, residential
broadband costs $35 a month on average.

While quick to retrieve pictures, for example, satellite is slow to upload
or send out information.

T1 lines can also be put anywhere.

Annie's Naturals, an international salad dressing manufacturer operating out
of a North Calais farmhouse, had a T1 line put in last year.

The line runs all the way from Montpelier.

"We basically had to be like Columbus to get the T1 up here. Cable wasn't
available and DSL wasn't available," said employee Curt Beachum.

Through CTC Communications of Burlington, the line costs Annie's $1,000 a
month. The new line includes phone service and it has sped up the company's
15 employees' Internet access considerably.

"It absolutely increased the level of customer service we can give as well,"
Annie's communications director Jenn Ingersoll said.

Without $1,000 to spend a month, wireless technology is showing up as a
cheaper alternative for individuals.

"A group of 25 or 50 people is enough to cover the expense of installation,"
Stolley said.

The equipment can also be installed and up and running quickly - in a matter
of a couple months, Stolley said.

"There's a lot of interest in Vermont and elsewhere about wireless broadband
services," said Campbell.

Verizon said it would also entertain requests from organized community
groups for DSL.

"The Vermont Council on Rural Development is doing absolutely the right
thing and is trying to build demand," Jamieson said.

To reach the Vermont Council of Rural Development, call 828-6024. The
assistance is free.

Contact Robin Palmer at [email-masked] or 479-0191, ext. 1171.
 http://timesargus.nybor.com/Regional_News/Story/70876.html

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