Royalton, VT – May 3, 2017
The East Central Vermont Telecommunications District (“ECFiber”) has completed a $14.5M
revenue bond financing to complete its construction providing universal broadband coverage
for 6 entire towns – Pittsfield, West Windsor, Pomfret, Barnard, Strafford and Thetford. The
$14.5M financing will also allow ECFiber to begin the process to cover several additional towns
(350 miles) in 2018, refinance higher cost debt, and connect over 800 subscribers in 2017.
“This is the second step in a four step financing process that began in 2016,” said Irv Thomae,
Chairman of ECFiber and Governing Board delegate from Norwich. “We’re excited that more
residents in these areas can now enjoy the benefits of locally controlled, state-of-the-art real
broadband. Our plan is to raise additional capital in 2018 and 2019 to fully cover 21 of our 24
towns by 2019.”
Carole Monroe, CEO of ValleyNet* stated, “We have been able to leverage a fair amount of
local investment and a small amount of state assistance to create a community owned and
operated utility which will ultimately bring over $40M in private investment to the east central
Vermont region. By 2020 ValleyNet should employ up to 25 FTEs and will have generated over
$20M of local subcontractor and utility activity.”
“We are in the process of deciding which towns and neighborhoods will be fully built in 2018
based on demand. Residents who are interested in using ECFiber’s services should
subscribe at www.ecfiber.net/subscribe now. There is no obligation to take service, ECFiber
uses excellent service instead of contracts to keep its customers.”
“Many thanks are due to our nearly 500 original local investors, who believed in us before no
large scale financing was possible. These investors have now been fully repaid,” said Martin
Blumberg, Treasurer of ECFiber. “Using local “bootstrap” financing to build a network is unique
and its success should be viewed as a tribute to the region’s community spirit. Thanks are also
due to John Roy, ECFiber’s former treasurer, who has skillfully managed communications and
transactions with these investors on a volunteer basis since 2011.”
ECFiber is a Communications Union District consisting of 24 towns in East-Central Vermont.
Step by step, we are building a community-owned fiber-optic network to deliver high-speed
Internet to every home, business, or civic institution in our territory. ECFiber offers real
broadband: symmetrical internet access (same upload as download), no contracts, no data
caps, and a choice of speeds from 10 Mbps to 500 Mbps that do not vary by location, time of
day, or according to the weather – as well as fully featured phone service with unlimited calling
to USA and Canada.
