Horses deliver broadband to remote Vermont

An "anachronistic vehicle," the draft horse, is being used to deliver high-speed Internet to remote areas of Vermont, Erik Blokland writes for VTDigger.org, an online service "led by journalists, powered by the public." He focuses on Claude Desmarais, right, who has been laying lines in the Green Mountains with "telephone horses" like Fred for 31 years.

"Without Fred pulling his weight in fiber-optic cable," Blokland reports, FairPoint Communications "would be hard-pressed to meet its 2013 goal, set by Gov. Peter Shumlin, to bring Internet to every home in the state." (Read more)