Vermont is past 80% fiber coverage. The last stretch runs to 2031.
Five years ago, about one in four Vermont homes could get a fiber internet connection. Today it is more than four in five, and the state’s broadband board says nearly everyone else should have the option by 2031.
“Before the VCBB was founded in 2021, 25% of Vermonters had access to fiber at their residence,” Vermont Community Broadband Board executive director Christine Hallquist told Vermont Business Magazine this month. “Today we are over 80%. Upon completion of the BEAD program, 99.7% of addresses will have access to fiber, or hybrid-fiber broadband.”
The last 0.3%, the most remote addresses, are expected to rely on low Earth orbit satellite service.
The money still coming
Most of the state’s buildout so far has been paid for with federal pandemic relief money passed through Act 71 construction grants, which now total more than $199 million. Hallquist said that ARPA money will be spent by June 30, 2027, and nearly all available state broadband funds have been assigned.
The next phase runs on the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Vermont was allocated almost $229 million through BEAD. Federal regulators approved the state’s final proposal in February, releasing $93 million to start building, and the board is seeking approval for about $90 million more. BEAD construction is slated to start in early 2027 and finish in 2031.
The providers chosen for BEAD work are Comcast, DVFiber, Fidium, Maple Broadband, NEK Broadband, SpaceX and VTel. Most of the remaining money is going to NEKCV Broadband, the partnership of NEK Broadband and CVFiber, which serves 72 towns in some of the hardest-to-reach parts of the state. As of mid-September its $80 million award was the largest construction grant in Vermont.
Construction is on schedule and the communications union districts have not had labor or supply problems, Hallquist said. Inflation is another matter. Kurt Gruendling of Waitsfield & Champlain Valley Telecom listed tariff surcharges, higher prices for fiber, routers and electronics, contract labor and fuel as pressures on budgets. “Fortunately, these increases have not slowed our buildout efforts,” he said.
Built is not the same as connected
The gap between homes that can get fiber and homes that actually sign up is still wide in the newest areas. As of July 1, the state’s communications union districts had passed 124,369 homes and connected 27,755 customers, Hallquist said. She said take rates in previously unserved areas tend to climb above 70% within three years of construction.
A communications union district is a group of towns that builds and owns internet infrastructure together as a public entity, then hires contractors and partners with providers. As of August, 216 Vermont municipalities, about 77%, belonged to one. Together they cover 96% of the state’s unserved 911 addresses.
A way to check the claims
To track where service actually improves, the broadband board launched VT Speed Check in October with the testing company Ookla. Residents download a speed test, and results feed an anonymized statewide map that shades areas by tier: below 100/20 megabits per second, at or above 100/20, and symmetrical service capable of 100/100 or better.
The state already has a baseline of 1,454,850 tests collected from January 2023 through September 2026, according to Telecom Gazette. Board officials say the data will supplement the FCC’s national broadband map, which relies heavily on what providers report.
Officials recommend running the test on a home computer rather than a phone, since a phone away from Wi-Fi measures cell service, and testing at different times of day. “We are asking all Vermonters to visit VT Speed Check, test your speed, and test it often,” Hallquist said.
The board is also running a pilot program to donate devices to restorative justice centers, so people without home internet can take part. The speed test and a confidential survey on internet use and digital skills are on the state’s broadband pages.
For background on how the districts are organized, see our earlier explainer on communications union districts.
Add Vermont Daily News as a preferred source on Google (opens in a new tab)
