Caution Is Good
On ECFiber

The folks at ECFiber should not be discouraged by the decision by the Vermont Telecommunication Authority to hold off on a request for $8 million in state revenue bonds. The VTA instead gave ECFiber a $25,000 planning grant and asked them to come up with a more detailed business plan.

The fact is that their proposal to install state-of-the-art fiber optic cable to every home in our area is fairly risky, given the target area population density.

While area towns with higher density could help offset the costs in less populated areas, these communities are also, in many cases, the places where there are already high speed internet options. The ECFiber project needs to be extremely well planned and implemented if it is to succeed.

While the project received widespread support at Town Meetings, it was in large part based on the assurances by ECFiber that there would be absolutely no risk or cost to local property taxpayers in our communities.

It is both prudent and wise that the Vermont Telecomunication Authority, which has been given the responsibility of investing state taxpayers’ money, take a harder look and make sure that there is a good chance the project will work before committing millions of our dollars to it. Hopefully ECFiber will be able to use the $25,000 in grant money to further develop what is potentially an extremely valuable service for our area and that they will be able to present a plan that will convince the VTA to provide significant funding for their project in the not too distant future.

John Freitag

South Strafford