VTA Supports Broadband Grant to VTel Wireless

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) has announced its intention to award a $2,065,000 grant to VTel Wireless, located in Springfield, Vermont, to expand broadband in unserved areas in southern Vermont through its Backroads Broadband Program.

In August 2010, VTel Wireless was awarded federal stimulus grant and loan funds through the Rural Utilities Service to build wireless broadband network that will provide Fourth-generation (4G) wireless broadband service to wide areas of Vermont. While the stimulus project will greatly increase the number of rural Vermont homes which will be able to get broadband service, the network will not cover all unserved locations.

The grant to VTel Wireless will be used to fund equipment to extend the new broadband service into adjacent unserved areas. It will bring new service to an estimated 500 additional unserved homes and businesses. To support the project, the VTA Board also authorized the VTA to use up to $1,800,000, if necessary, to construct towers which VTel Wireless may use to locate the radio equipment that delivers the service. Specific site identification efforts are focused on unserved areas of Windham County and on the Pittsfield area of Rutland County.

“Cost-effectively filling in the remaining widely scattered broadband coverage holes is a big challenge for Vermont” said Christopher Campbell, Executive Director of the VTA. “A great many of these holes are located in southern Vermont. This award will provide highly targeted assistance to fill in those holes.”

“These areas often are lacking in both broadband and cellular service,” Campbell continued. “An added benefit of this project is that any necessary towers will also be available to host cellular equipment. This will further the VTA’s dual mission of complete broadband and complete cellular coverage.”


The grant funding was made available through a state appropriation to the Backroads Broadband program in the Vermont Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2010. Funding for any tower locations will be provided through funds appropriated through the Fiscal Year 2011 Capital Bill, which instructs the VTA to build infrastructure which can improve both broadband and cellular coverage in Vermont. This award will be subject to the finalization of approved grant agreements, and the funds will not be encumbered or disbursed until a detailed itemization of the specific manner in which the funds shall be spent is submitted to the Vermont Senate Committee on Finance, the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General affairs and the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development.

http://www.telecomvt.org/news/Press-Release-backroadsbb-VTel-award.php