Broadband
As the fall’s political campaigns get underway in earnest after next week’s primaries, one issue that ought to merit the attention of Vermonters is how well we are doing with regard to meeting the goal of having the entire state accessible to highspeed, affordable broadband Internet service by the end of 2010. The same goes for mobile, cellular telephone service.
Last year, the Legislature, with the enthusiastic backing of Gov. James Douglas, voted through Act 79, which established a Vermont Telecommunications Authority to push for the establishment of high speed Internet and cellular telephone services throughout the state. Known as the “E-State” initiative, it’s an effort to bring Vermont into the 21st century in terms of information infrastructure, and the authority was empowered to issue up to $40 million in revenue bonds for this purpose. It can also establish partnerships with providers of telecom services, construct, own and provide communications facilities and form nonprofit subsidiary corporations for special projects, among other things.
This was, and remains, a great idea, one that was supported by both major political parties. Achieving bi-partisan agreement on an issue so central to Vermont’s economic growth doesn’t happen everyday. But in this case, the obvious worth of helping foster the communications capability of the state to handle the ever-increasing needs of private sector, jobs producing enterprises reverberated clearly across the political spectrum.
With the state’s tax structure on both the personal and corporate sides more or less maxed out — a further jump in tax rates should really be off the table — and public spending being slashed about as close to the bone as it can probably get without affecting important services — the only way out of the tight budgetary box the state finds itself in is through economic growth. Today, and in the future, economic growth will hinge more than ever on sturdy broadband links that connect Vermont with not only the rest of the country but the world.
For many years Vermont has been viewed by its cheerleaders as ideally situated to attract high-income entrepreneurs who may be consultants, or may own businesses, but in either case would inject some welcome revenue into the state’s economy in one way or another. That vision has been thrawted by a poor-to-middling broadband infrastructure, along with punishingly high tax rates on high income earners. While it’s not fashionable to lament the plight of those pulling down six figures and beyond and the amounts they’re asked to fork over in state taxes, it is a disincentive to those who might otherwise move to Vermont and bring that wealth with them, and who have the freedom to pretty much live where they want. The point is, while it’s proper to worry more about how, for example, the less well-off will afford to heat their homes this winter, continually raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for additional government services isn’t a free lunch either. There comes a point when it’s self-defeating.
The state has at least tried to address the broadband issue through the E-state initiative, but one problem is that the goal posts keep getting moved back. It may be all well and good to be able to claim with a straight face that 100 percent of the state will have broadband access by 2010, but what kind of access will that be? Technology keeps marching on, bandwidth needs keep rising, and what might have been considered state-of-the-art in 2007 will seem barely more than dial-up two years from now.
And given the difficulties of attracting telecom companies to actually install and maintain towers to service often sparsely populated corners of the state, getting to the bare minimum of how the state defines accessibility — transfer rates of 1.5 megabytes of data per second in one direction, plus mobile cell phone access everywhere in the state — will be a big challenge. According to the best estimates from state officials, we’re only about 80 percent or so there. Getting the final mile — or the final 5 percent — will be the really hard part, because those areas aren’t likely to be very profitable, if at all.
If the state were flush with cash, you could argue that this is where the government should step in and build the infrastructure and own it until it could be sold to a private entrepreneur. But we’re not flush, and probably won’t be for awhile. What the state can do is continue to emphasize and make pushing broadband a high priority and resist backsliding on a commitment to high technology. There are so many ways that the presence of robust Internet services can save money — from health care to education to all manner of economic services — that the minuscule investment the state is really calling upon itself to make seems like a bargain. And let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that access translates into actual usage. It only means we theoretically can.
It seems amazing that in this day and age many communities in Vermont — including nearby Dorset — are still only partially covered by broadband Internet and its cousin, cellular phone service. Go anywhere in Europe, and in growing parts of Asia, and it’s not an issue. If Vermont wants to be part of the 21st century and reverse its aging population statistics, we should be pushing harder on the hi-tech front — and not be content or pat ourselves on the back for making it “accessible.” There isn’t any harm in going to the next level on this one.