Peter’s Soapbox

(Minor) Corrections to this Week’s Herald Article

The Herald of Randolph this week published a story covering my presentation to the Stockbridge Select Board on April 17th. It was good, nut there were two minor errors. First, I did not say Stockbridge has the highest number of pre-registrations, I said we have the highest rate of pre-registrations among the member towns. Also, the article indicated that I am attempting to solicit more pre-registrations. In fact, other individuals in town are heading up this effort. All I am trying to do is get the grand list from the town so that other volunteers can contact property owners in town who may not yet know about EC Fiber.

ECFiber Pre-Registation Campaign

In case you haven’t heard about it yet, The East-Central Vermont Community Fiber-Optic Network (ECFiber.net) is an association of 20 towns in East- Central Vermont formed to build a community-owned fiber-optic communications network for the purpose of making high-speed Internet, digital television and telephone services universally available to the approximately 23,000 homes and businesses in participating towns.

ECFiber.Net is working to increase pre-registrations. At present more than 3,000 future subscribers have pre-registered for the service. The most efficient way to pre-register is online at http://www.ecfiber.net/preregister. Pre-registering is not a binding commitment as it is understood that your needs may change. When service is available in your area, ECFiber will contact you see if you are still interested.

There are three reasons to pre-register:

1. A high pre-registration count indicates to the financial community that ECFiber already has a great deal of local community support.
2. The more subscribers connected in the first few years, the more successful the network will be. An early “take rate” is essential to the project.
3. Towns with the highest percentage of pre-registered customers will most likely see the line crews first.

Show your support for ECFiber by pre-registering. You can also help by encouraging your friends and neighbors to do the same. Watch for the yellow pre-registration cards in the local stores and businesses and encourage the ECFiber volunteers asking for your support. A sub-committee of ECFiber has been formed to work on increasing pre-registrations. There are many ways to help with this effort. If you would like get involved call 802-889-9602 or write to info@ecfiber.net

ECFiber/VTA Editorial in Today’s Valley News

See this editorial in today’s Valley News for a pretty good summary of the state of ECFiber with respect to the VTA.

Tim Nulty’s Response: “My Turn”

The reaction of an ECFiber delegate (a project to clone Burlington Telecom in rural Vermont) to the Free Press article was: “The tone is negative, but the facts are actually positive for BT”. Quite so. Continue reading Tim Nulty’s Response: “My Turn”…

Burlington Telecomm Article in the Free Press

See this article on the current state of Burlington Telecom which ran in the Burlington Free Press yesterday. I think it is written pretty fairly, from my perspective, and raises some legitimate concerns. Note that, while BT may be behind on its predictions, it is projected to break even within the next few months. Taking advantage of current low interest rates to refinance its current debt load is probably a good opportunity for them to sustain this status, and move into the black in the future. The questions about the lack of details in early plans are legitimate, and things that EC Fiber must be certain to take into consideration now, or hopefully, they already have.