ECFiber Announces Universal Coverage Plan for Six Towns

ROYALTON, VT — The East Central Vermont Telecommunications District (ECFiber) announced plans to provide high speed, community-owned Internet to six Vermont towns in 2017. Nearly 100 percent of households and businesses in Barnard, Thetford, Strafford, West Windsor, Pomfret and Pittsfield will have access to an optical fiber Internet connection in 2017. Fiber connectivity is the most reliable, symmetrical high-speed Internet access that will meet household and business needs today and for decades to come.

ECFiber’s dedication to universal service is the most important distinction between its mission and business model and those of its competitors. Other local Internet providers generally fall into two camps, those which provide:

1. actual high speed Internet in only the most densely populated areas (e.g., cable,) and


2. broadly available coverage of a service which is not actually broadband high speed Internet (e.g., DSL, satellite, or wireless Internet.)

“Our mission is to build and operate a universal, open access, fiber-to-the premises network, bringing state-of-the art connectivity to every home, business and civic institution in all of our member towns and we are pleased that at last we can provide universal coverage to six entire towns with 250 miles of new network, thanks to our recent financing,” commented Irv Thomae, district chairman. “We plan to continue this process of covering towns which have the highest demand over the next several years until the entire District is covered.”

ECFiber chose the six towns based on the results of a pre-subscription campaign that ended on April 30. These six towns demonstrated the highest demand. Including their existing subscribers, an average of 35 percent of premises in the selected towns have already subscribed.

Based on experience thus far, ECFiber’s business plan anticipates that additional households and businesses will subscribe over time as service becomes available.