ECFiber is a unique business. It is owned by a government, the East Central Vermont Telecommunications District. ECFiber was created by the voters at 23 town meetings in 2008. The towns then entered into an inter-local contract to build broadband to all homes and businesses on the grid in the member towns.
Why? The simple fact is that the cable companies were not going to build out in our largely rural area, and the phone company was not upgrading its technology here either: the low population and spread-out geography made investing here a losing proposition. We had to figure out how to create our own broadband business.
This was an entirely grass-roots effort. It received no support from the state or federal government. In fact, it took until 2011 to raise enough money from local investors to build the first 25-mile “proof of concept” network.
By 2014, ECFiber’s leadership — the Governing Board created by the inter-local contract and the executive management provided by ValleyNet, Inc., the nation’s only non-profit ISP — concluded that a change in Vermont State law was needed in order to enable ECFiber to issue municipal revenue bonds.
In 2015, the legislation proposed by ECFiber became law: 30 VSA 82 “Communications Union Districts” (CUD). On January 1, 2016, the inter-local contract and all its assets were transferred to the new government entity, Vermont’s first CUD.
In early 2016, the first of seven bonds was issued, with half the proceeds going to retire the loans made by local folks; this was repeated in 2017. Through 2023, the District has issued over $70 million in debt that is backed only by the revenues of the business of ECFiber. The District has no recourse to the member towns or the citizens of the District.
ECFiber is a miracle created by the efforts and contributions of hundreds of local citizens. It has created more than two dozen good jobs and inspired the State of Vermont to help eight other CUDs form.
When we say we are community-owned, it is because the District that owns the business is governed by local citizens appointed by Selectboards to represent their town on the board. Each of the now-31 member towns has one vote on the Governing Board.
The early choice to build a fiber-optic network was a matter of Vermont thrift: if we’re going to pay crews to hang any kind of cables on poles, we’d rather just do it right the first time. Once in place, fiber-optic cables will last for a hundred years; and as higher data rates are needed, we can simply replace the small electronic devices at the end of each fiber. Fiber technology also lets us offer symmetrical speeds (equal upload and download data rates), which are especially important for serious educational or business use.
The District is presently building out new towns added in 2020, with the Fairlees and Bradford having been finished in the fall of 2024 and Newbury approaching completion in the spring of 2025. Topsham, Corinth, and parts of Washington and Windsor will also be finished this year.
Visit ECVTD.gov for more information about this unique solution to solving the rural broadband crisis.
