|
Gov. Peter Shumlin is closing the gap on his 2010 campaign promiseof universal statewide broadband by the end of 2013. On Wednesday,he was on hand to ceremonially connect 4,000 potential newcustomers to high-speed wireless Internet at a Cloud Alliance towerin Plainfield. Cloud Alliance, a small Vermont-based Wireless Internet ServiceProvider, built out the $500,000 coverage expansion after itreceived a $240,000 grant from the Vermont TelecommunicationsAuthority, a governmental entity established in 2007 with the goalof investing in and coordinating investments into broadband andcellular expansion in Vermont. Michael Birnbaum, general manager of Cloud Alliance, said theproject would not have been possible without governmentalassistance. We re small and we re local, he said. Because we re smalland local, we don t have the resources to do what the bigcorporations can do. We need support and we ve gotten thatsupport. There are still more than 20,000 unserved E911 locations in thestate (an E911 location is essentially a street address). About18,000 unserved locations are in the process of getting high-speedcoverage through the federally funded Vermont Telephone Co. projectwhich includes fiber and a Wireless Open World (WOW) network. Karen Marshall, head of Connect VT, is responsible for the successof Shumlin s end-of-2013 promise, and she said Vermont is on trackfor full last-mile broadband coverage by Dec. 31, 2013. There are 2,105 unserved E911 locations statewide where there is nocurrent project in place to extend coverage, Marshall said, but thestate has $10.2 million it plans to invest to get projects in thepipeline by the end of July 2012. This is one of a dozen projects that are under way across thestate right now, Marshall said. When the governor talks aboutour end of 2013 goal, we re charging very, very hard. We have adozen projects currently at work, they are in fiber installation literally you see it on the roads with crews, please be careful andmindful of those crews other wireless projects are in permittingand site acquisition and beginning their installation, so it s areally exciting time on this beautiful landscape of ours. The permitting process, Shumlin said, was the biggest obstacle tothe 2013 deadline when he took office. Birnbaum said, thatlegislation greatly helped with the permitting process. Without the 248a section of the law, we would have had to applyfor eight permits, Birnbaum said. One in each municipality aslocal zoning and Act 250, so whether the permits are easier orharder, there s eight versus one, so right there is a huge savingsin effort. Title 30, Section 248a is an alternative to Act 250 environmentalreview available to the telecom industry. Section 248a reviews areconducted by the Vermont Public Service Board. We ve created a seamless, smart, faster, more logical permittingprocess, Shumlin said. The press conference took place amid knee-high grass still wet fromTuesday night s rains, and Shumlin stood between Cloud Alliance solder tower, a telephone pole-style post mounted with antennae anda new, 100-foot high metal tower. As for the symbolic gesture thatgot the whole four-antenna project running: Shumlin screwed a coveronto an electrical panel on the outside of an equipment shed. Four screws later, the governor took out an iPhone, snapped a photoof the 100-foot tower gleaming in the noontime sun, and beam[ed]it over the Internet. The 100-foot Cloud Alliance tower does not host antennae that servemobile phones. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Metal Roll Forming Machine , Roof Roll Forming Machine Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Purlin Forming Machine today!
Related Articles -
Metal Roll Forming Machine, Roof Roll Forming Machine Manufacturer,
|
