The Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) Board has
approved a $5 million grant to expand cellular service within 19
areas including: Bennington, Rutland, Windham, and Windsor
counties. The award goes to VTel Wireless, an affiliate of Vermont
Telephone based in Springfield. The cellular project, with a total
cost of $15 million, will extend mobile voice and data service in
two ways: VTEL Wireless will be launching their own retail cellular
service, and they will have roaming agreements with multiple major
cell carriers.
"This investment of state funds for cellular equipment through
VTel Wireless will fill in some of our most challenging gaps in
southern Vermont. Connect VT, the VTA and our carriers are tackling
our cellular challenge on all fronts. With our help, the industry
and VTA are building towers, extending fiber, adding equipment for
faster service, and using our expedited permitting process to get
it done," said Gov. Peter Shumlin.
The state's commitment to finding effective ways to extend and
improve cell service in Vermont's challenging mountain landscape is
ongoing. Funding for the VTA award was made possible by an
appropriation in the capital budget by the Legislature and is a
part of Gov. Shumlin's Connect VT initiative.
"This project is the VTA's most significant award to date to
expand cellular service, and it represents a tremendous step
forward in our efforts," said VTA Executive Director Christopher
Campbell. "We are pleased to support VTel's work to bring cellular
service to underserved communities in southern Vermont."
One key aspect of the cellular project is that it will be based
on substantial broadband infrastructure already being built by VTel
Wireless. Broadband Internet access will become available to a
significant number of currently unserved or under-served Vermont
homes and businesses as VTel constructs a 4G (fourth generation)
LTE-technology system known as Wireless Open World (WOW). The VTel
Wireless WOW project is primarily funded by a combination of a
federal stimulus grant plus a federal loan, as well as VTel's own
investment.
Many of the WOW broadband service areas overlap with the 'target
corridors' for cell service. Target corridors are main travel
routes identified as either lacking cell service completely or
having inconsistent coverage. Connect VT and the VTA identified
over 100 of them in 2011 in order to focus funding and find
solutions.
Here is a sample of locations where cell service coverage will
be improved:
• Andover Road from
Andover to Weston
• Route 7 in
Pownal
• Route 9 in
Marlboro and Wilmington
• Routes 100 and
100a in Plymouth
• Route 100 in
Wardsboro
• Route 103 in
Mount Holly
• Route 133 from
Pawlet to Middletown Springs
"Our original WOW wireless broadband project award did not
include funding to tap into the cellular capabilities of our 4G/LTE
network, or to provide 3G signal for phones that Vermonters already
have. This award, and the recent FCC Mobility fund award, make our
plan to bring cellular service to Vermonters possible. We look
forward to launching cellular service in addition to our fixed
wireless voice and data service with the WOW network. We have
always believed that rural Vermonters deserve the very best
technology," said Michel Guite, President of VTel.
Their cellular voice service equipment will be deployed on many
of the same structures planned for the WOW project. VTel also will
install small-cell sites on utility poles. Small-cell equipment,
deployed at relatively short intervals along roadways, will bring
cell service to areas that are especially difficult to serve.
To prepare for technological advances already in the pipeline,
the project does more than simply extend current 3G voice
technology to these locations in southern Vermont. VTel Wireless
will purchase core equipment that will ultimately make it possible
for them to add mobile cell service to their entire LTE wireless
broadband system, which will reach into the Northeast Kingdom.
According to Karen Marshall, Chief of Connect VT, "The mission
to connect Vermont is twofold: to achieve universal broadband
service and to vastly expand our cellular service by the end of
2013. Our cell carriers are investing heavily to upgrade their
existing networks to 4G/LTE at the same time we are seeking
expanded coverage. This grant to VTel Wireless, a Vermont company,
represents a significant investment in leading-edge micro and macro
cell technology that will meet the needs of Vermonters. We are
using the VTel Wireless broadband infrastructure of the WOW project
as a foundation, then identifying where those sites overlap with
Target Corridors. Our public funds leverage federal and private
funds already at work as we avoid duplication of infrastructure and
stretch our resources further."
