by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org A major telecommunications bill passed the Vermont Senate on Tuesday. It was sent immediately to the House to review the many changes made in recent weeks by the Senate Finance Committee.H.297would fold the Vermont Telecommunications Authority into the Agency of Administration. The entity was established by the state in 2007 to help provide “last mile” households with broadband Internet service and to improve cellphone service in rural areas.
Read a rundown of the Senate bill.
The VTA’s mission would not end, however. A new Division for Connectivity would assume VTA’s role, and the VTA would lie dormant. Lawmakers want to be able to resuscitate it to take advantage of its bonding authority. As a separate entity, the VTA can bond up to $40 million without affecting the state’s credit rating.
The state’s broadband goals would be updated to reflect both modern and evolving technology. The vision in the bill, by the end of 2024, would ensure that “every E-911 business and residential location in Vermont has infrastructure capable of delivering Internet access with service that has a minimum download speed of 100 Mbps and is symmetrical.”
“Symmetrical” refers to comparable upload and download speeds. Some technology, quickly becoming outdated, is quicker on download than upload. This is seen by many telecommunications proponents as a hindrance, because it makes activities like video conferencing and even sending large emails more difficult.
Aside from telecom authority restructuring, the bill also proposes raising an additional $1.45 million annually to support telecom buildout. The money would come from increasing the Universal Service Fund rate to 2 percent. The USF charges also would be be applied to pre-paid wireless phone purchases, in addition to the phone bills where they already appear.
Lawmakers are also trying to recommit to long-term telecommunications planning by the Public Service Department. The Public Service Board, in turn, would have to take those plans into consideration when issuing certificates of public good for telecommunications infrastructure.