22 Vermont Communities do what the Duopoly won’t, enable broadband access

Rural Vermonters are demanding their Third Pipe, and they are making happen without the Duopoly. These small towns will be laying fiber to bring them into the 21st century. In a Third Pipe world, you can do almost anything almost anywhere, if you have access.

Using Burlington Telecom’s municipal broadband network as a model, 22 rural Vermont towns are poised to pool their resources and launch a fiber-optic project that could go online by the end of 2009.

It’s more than a twinkle in a technician’s eye. Members of the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network announced Wednesday that formal agreements are in the works from Windsor to Montpelier that would bring the strength of numbers — and attractive financing — to universal broadband Internet coverage. (from Burlington Free Press)