Tim Nulty has been the spear-head for our local municipal fiber optic network. He has announced his resignation. My hope is after a well-deserved rest he’ll continue to help other local towns get their own fiber network. Excerpts from his letter:

The BT project has demonstrated the viability and desirability of publicly owned, universal, open-access fiber-to-the-premise telecommunications networks. Such networks are the “electronic public roads” of the future and proving their feasibility is a major contribution to our society. Having established this important principle, I would like to spend the remainder of my working life building other such networks elsewhere in Vermont where they are needed.

The communications scene in Vermont presents various points of interest:

• Verizon is trying to sell all of its dial-up land-lines (voice lines) in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont
• FairPoint communications wants to buy these…via what looks like a very strange financing deal, that among other things, appears to reduce Verizon’s tax obligations by millions of dollars.
• Verizon is buying Rural Cellular, (Unicell) which was the major wireless competitor in our region. We don’t have ATT here…and that means no IPhones (!) So, on the one hand, while Verizon is buying additional wireless capacity, they are attempting to unload their wirelines.

And no…Verizon isn’t installing FOIS in Vermont, (fiber to the home). That’s why Burlington Telecom are the heroes. They sell a triple-play tv, phone, internet connection for $99.00/month.