Big broadband project in Vermont, denied capital by economic downturn, looks for stimulus money

"The economic stimulus package, which sets aside $7.2 billion for broadband initiatives, could provide a crucial lifeline to municipalities struggling to bring broadband access to millions of Americans who don't have it," Amol Sharma of The Wall Street Journal writes from Turnbridge, Vt., where an effort to get faster Internet access "shows how the financial turmoil has exacerbated the already daunting challenge of reaching the most sparsely populated areas of the country." (Photo by Lam Vo)

Turnbridge and 21 other Central Vermont towns joined together for a broadband project, which "has struck out with state authorities, big investment banks and wealthy individual investors," so now it's counting on the stimulus, Sharma reports. ""People are truly afraid their communities are going to die if they aren't on the communications medium that drives the country culturally and economically," project manager Timothy Nulty told Sharma. "It's one of the most intensely felt political issues in Vermont after health care." Sharma adds, "Nulty sees broadband deployment not just as a short-term job creator but as a long-term investment in critical U.S. infrastructure, the equivalent of rural electrification in the 1930s and 1940s."

In the Journal's Digits blog, Sharma notes, "Critics have attacked municipal Internet projects, calling them taxpayer-sapping money-losers and ventures better served by the private sector.
But if President Barack Obama is serious about wiring rural America with high-speed Web access, these efforts ... will play a key role." For Sharma's detailed story, click here. For his blog post and nice, three-and-a-half-minute video version of the story, here.