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VICTORY, Vt. (AP) – For the 70 or so people living in Vermont’s remote Victory community, Town Clerk Tracey Martel says he isregularly gets frustrated watching a spinning circle he is computer he is It tries to complete even the most basic municipal tasks online.
“Fast internet would be really nice,” he said. MartelHis community was one of the last communities in Vermont to receive electricity almost 60 years ago. DSL service he is it now works for basic internet, but it can be spotty and doesn’t allow users to access all the benefits of the interconnected world.
The bird is about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away as it flies in the neighboring community across Miles Pond in town. rapportA new fiber optic line is starting to bring truly high-speed internet to residents of the remote region known as the Northeast Kingdom.
“I’m looking forward to high-speed internet, streaming TV,” he said. rapport resident John Gilchrista crew running a fiber optic cable her at home earlier this year.
Fiber optic cable starting to serve its remote part rapport The victory is achieved through NEK Broadband, an organization of nearly 50 Vermont towns working to bring high-speed internet service to the state’s most remote areas.
NEK Broadband Executive Director Christa Shute He said the group’s business plan calls for serving all potential customers within five years, but is beginning to feel that this goal may not be met, given current supply constraints and the lack of trained technicians.
“I think it will take us seven to 10 years to build” he is I said.
Congress has earmarked tens of billions of dollars for various programs to help fill the digital void left by the pandemic, in which millions of people are confined to their homes without the ability to study, work, or receive medical care online.
The first of these funds reaches municipalities, businesses and other groups involved in the effort, but some say supply chain issues, labor shortages and geographic restrictions will slow delivery.
The demand for fiber optic cable goes beyond wired broadband to homes and businesses. The cable will help enable 5G technology, which is now made available by wireless providers.
But there is a bottleneck in supply. Michael Bell, senior vice president and general manager of Corning Optical Communications, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, says the problem lies with the supply of the protective jacket that surrounds the hair-thin glass strips that carry information about the light beams.
Currently, those working to expand broadband say delays in getting the fiber optic cable they need could exceed a year.
“Based on the capacity we add and the capacity we see our competitors add, wait times will start to decrease significantly as the year progresses and into next year,” Bell said. “And I think as we go into next year, the lead time for most customers will be less than a year.”
Meanwhile, there is a shortage of labor to install the cable. Jim Hayes, president of the Santa Monica, California-based Fiber Optic Association, said many people in the industry have created training programs to train people to work with fiber.
“It has to be done now,” Hayes said. “For every technology we have, we’ll probably need to train ten technicians who are competent to manage them.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill passed last fall, says areas that receive broadband speeds less than 25 megabits of download and 3 megabits of upload are considered out of service. To qualify for different federal grants through the infrastructure bill and other programs, most completed projects must offer download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second. Upload speeds vary, but most federal grants have at least 20 megabit uploads.
For comparison, it takes 80 seconds to download a 1 gigabyte video at 100 megabits per second. At 25 megabits per second it takes four times longer – over 320 seconds or 5 minutes.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, part of the Commerce Agency that funds broadband projects across the country through infrastructure legislation, is unbiased about how internet service providers meet speed requirements. Many providers say the key to bringing true high-speed internet service to the entire country is to install fiber optic cables in every corner.
High-speed internet will be even more difficult to deploy in tribal communities and rural areas in the western United States, where distances are dwarfed by rural areas of northern New England.
Broadband access is a mix of dial-up, satellite service, wireless, fiber, and mobile data in the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the United States, with 27,000 square miles (69,930 square kilometers) in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
The U.S. Department of the Interior, which has extensive control over tribal issues, said federal assessments, rights-of-way permits, environmental reviews and archaeological preservation laws could delay progress.
The argument against wireless options currently used in some areas is that they fail to provide the speeds needed to qualify for federal grants.
Mike Wendy of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said that wireless technology is getting faster and more reliable, and wireless connections may be the only way to reach some of the most remote locations.
“The challenge of all that money is making sure that those who are not getting service are served,” said Wendy, whose organization represents nearly 1,000 fixed wireless internet providers. “Our guys are in these markets right now and they’re growing.”
Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted said his state will use $233 million in state dollars to expand broadband to more than 43,000 households. Other internet service providers have agreed to expand broadband to an additional 51,000 households. Ohio is expected to receive an additional $268 million in federal funding for further broadband expansion in the state.
Husted said Ohio’s focus on infrastructure is what groups and organizations need to provide computers and help people adapt to the rapidly growing digital age.
“We’re building the road,” Husted said. “Access to broadband is like a highway system. That’s where we focus. That doesn’t mean there are people who don’t need a car or don’t need a driver’s license.”
There are still scattered locations across the country that rely on dial-up, and some people in remote locations use satellite internet services. Some people have no internet options at all.
MartelThe Victory town clerk said that when people from NEK Broadband visited the community, they told residents it would take five to seven years for the fiber optic cable to reach the community.
However close says he is The organization hopes to receive a grant to connect the most rural areas, which could increase the timeline for Victory to three years.
Meanwhile in the east rapporta few weeks after service, Gilchrist I said he is and her 19-year-old daughter Emily, who will be leaving for college in a few months, no longer has to go to the local restaurant to use the internet. He canceled his expensive satellite TV service, his daughter and friends are using it to play video games online, and in a few months he will be using that connection during his college education.
“Works great, I guess all I do is check email.” Gilchrist I said. “I don’t watch TV, but my daughter loves it.”
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