Google Fiber deal could provide high-speed internet to 43,000 families in Vermont

Two groups of communities in northwest Vermont are close to striking an agreement with Google Fiber to provide lightning-fast service to some of the state’s underserved areas.

said Sean Keogh of Enosberg, CEO of Northwest FiberworX (formerly Northwest Communications Union District), which represents about 29,000 addresses.

Telecom union territories are towns that have banded together to build telecom infrastructure.

Two of Vermont’s newest CUDsAnd Northwest FiberworX (with 21 member communities) and Lamoille FiberNet (with 10 member communities), joined forces last year to build, own and maintain an open-access fiber network that can host multiple Internet service providers — a first in the state.

“We’re doing something very different from any of the other ITU areas,” said Val Davis of Johnson, CEO of Lamoille FiberNet, which covers about 14,100 addresses. “We are building an open access network and we will own the network when that is done.”

According to the state, 71,000 titles You don’t have access to the Federal Definition of Broadband, which is 25Mbps download speed and 3Mbps upload – that’s just basic broadband. They may have DSL or perhaps a telephone connection.

Vermont is the first state in the country to allow municipalities to band together as CUDs to build a fiber-optic service.

said Rob Fish, deputy director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board, which created itLaw 71 in 2021. “By grouping cities together in these areas of contact, it made sense for the big providers — who had no interest in Vermont previously — to talk to us.”

The Northwest and Lamoille CUDs together represent just under 43,000 titles.

Davis said Google heard about the partnership and reached out to the state in September. They’ve been in discussions ever since.

If all goes well, Fish said, Google could become the network’s first retail Internet service provider. “So you’re going to talk about good prices, incredibly amazing speed, and it’s going to be a publicly owned network where Google could be just one of many providers on the network.”

Google Fiber is a high-speed broadband internet service that uses fiber-optic cables to provide speeds of up to 2 gigabits to homes and businesses. Fiber-optic cables transmit information using light, allowing for much faster speeds than traditional cable connections, DSL, or dial-up connections. Currently serving Google Fiber 20 Metro areas across the United States

“We hope this project will become a model for many other communities that need fast and reliable internet,” said David Finn, director of corporate development at Google Fiber, in a March 9 press release.

Keough, who previously worked for Burlington Telecom, said Northwest and Lamoille CUDs have covered a lot of things in the past few months, and “we hope to come to a close in terms of our negotiations here over the next two weeks.”

The process involves a lot of backtracking, but Davis said he hopes to sign an agreement with Google by the end of June.

If all goes as planned, construction could begin late this year, and about 42,900 households could start seeing new service on a rolling basis within the next 36 months.

In accordance with state law, CUDs have already purchased their first batches of fiber — 150 miles for Lamoille FiberNet and 130 miles for Northwest FiberworX — and have issued separate requests for proposals for design, construction, and project management.

Davis said at least five or six companies have expressed interest, and CUDs expect to pick a vendor by June 9.

“We’re dancing as fast as we can,” he said. But this is no small task. The only thing we had in the past that we can compare to is the electrification of the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, when they were building the grid. It’s a huge task and it will get done, but it will take some time.”

“We saw from the start that this was an opportunity for us to do something kind of cool,” Keough said. “If we succeed – and we hope and believe we will – this very well has the potential to be a game-changer for rural broadband everywhere and could potentially be a model for other parts of the country as well.”

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