The BFC Computing Weblog

Quoting in whole from the ValleyFiber page:

ValleyFiber is a new initiative by ValleyNet to help towns organize themselves to create and use town-wide fiber-optic networks to offer residents, organizations, municipal government, and businesses high-speed Internet, telephone, and television access without burdening taxpayers.

ECFiberNet is the first group of towns that ValleyFiber is working with to implement community-wide fiber-optic networks. ECFiberNet consists of roughly 20 towns in the Upper Valley and east-central area of Vermont who are working with ValleyFiber to approve, fund, and create a fiber-optic network to serve its residents, businesses, and municipal facilities with high-speed Internet, telephone, and television services.

ValleyFiber has created a unique financing model in which the towns do not bond for the infrastructure, but rather fund it out of operating revenues. This is good for the taxpayer and good for those who need Internet service. ECFiberNet appears to be poised for success at Vermont town meetings, receiving a unanimous voice vote of Yes.

New Hampshire is behind the curve, in comparison. It’s very important, if you’re a business owner and would like to see a fiber optic network available to your business, to sign their statement of support indicating that your business would be interested in the project, and that it feels that such a project is important. The statement of support is worded generally, and only cites ECFiberNet as an example, rather than attaching you to a specific network. To sign the statement of support you need only support a fiber project of some kind – these are being collected to indicate to others how much interest there is in the community. If you’re working for a company in the Upper Valley, please get this to your boss and explain the benefits, if you’re in a position to do so.

Additionally, everybody who would buy the service for their homes can pre-register here.

I’ve written before (here, here, here, here, and here) about some of the problems caused by the current Internet situation. I also should have written about it here - good Internet is the only thing holding us back from being the next Silicon Valley, but man just try getting somebody talented to re-locate here and tell them they’ll have to go back to dial-up. Deal Killer.