Broadband Grants Bring Opportunities, Challenges

AP/Matt Rourke

Politicians have promised it, and continue to do so, everyone says they want to bring high-speed broadband Internet service to every corner of Vermont. But many Vermonters, especially in rural areas, are still frustrated by that promise going unfulfilled, and are left with slow dial-up technology and spotty at best cell phone service.

So the news this week that a Vermont company called V-TEL has won $116 million in federal grants and loans to get high speed access to nearly every home in the state is being greeted with great anticipation, tempered with some skepticism.

VPR's Mitch Wertlieb gets a kind of primer on the technological opportunities and challenges V-TEL will face, from Chris Campbell of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority.