In an earlier post, I brought up the topic of e-state status for Vermont. Being an e-state means that broadband Internet access is available to everyone, where the definition of broadband is a speed of over 200 kbps in one direction. The Vermont Department of Public Service has an excellent report Understanding Broadband Deployment in Vermont.   It addresses many of the concerns found in a rural state with respect to broadband deployment. The main concerns being that there are significant pockets of population that it is not economical for Internet service providers to deploy broadband services. The limited deployment of cable service; the long local loops of telephone service and rugged terrain; all impact the economics of broadband deployment. Creative measures are required to drive deployment in rural areas. A resource the report draws on is the May, 2006 GAO report on broadband deployment.

As you would expect, the more populated areas of Vermont are well served for Internet access, in some cases there are multiple sources available to a homeowner. In many others, there may only be a single option. For too many the only option is dialup, some may have the option of satellite service, unfortunately satellite suffers from significant delays (latency), low speed and high-cost. However, it is substantially better than dialup, if you can afford the expense of the equipment and service. My wife and I used satellite up until we managed to negotiate an extension of cable service to our home, now we use the lower cost, significantly higher-speed cable modem service. Our house is 33,000 feet away from the Verizon central office; therefore, we are not candidates for DSL, if it were offered in the town. A colleague in the Champlain Islands receives broadband from a wireless Internet service provider (WISP). The company uses line of site WiMAX to reach a large population at minimal cost.

If you are interested in broadband, especially in rural areas, I recommend you take a look at the documents linked to this post. For anyone interested in DSL and wireless can see our self-paced courses here. A free preview of the DSL material is available here and one for wireless is here. For those with a more casual interest in the technology look out for some upcoming podsnacks on fiber, copper and wireless Internet access options. Podsnacks are posted daily at this site; an archive of all podsnacks is available here. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the daily podsnack feed here.