Brandon to get first high-speed wireless
Toolbox
By ED BARNA Correspondent - Published: May 22, 2005
BRANDON — The town may become the first in Vermont to provide high-speed wireless Internet access to residents.
With help from a $50,000 state grant, antennas at the fire station, elementary school, the Park Village water tower and the Brandon Inn should soon be sending signals to receivers mounted at homes of rural residents.
The project needs a conditional use permit and several variances for antenna height from the Development Review Board, but there was no opposition voiced at a hearing last week.
The technology will be similar to so-called "Wi-Fi hot zones" that have been set up around some hotels, convenience stores, libraries and downtown locations. But those short-range systems are open to anyone with a wireless-enabled computer, while the proposed long-range system in Brandon will be a service requiring monthly payments.
In that way, it will be like DSL telephone-based Internet service and the kind of broadband available along with cable TV service, both of which are already available in parts of Brandon.
But like the Wi-Fi, these are limited in range compared to the wireless broadband that the grant from the Department of Economic Development will help bring about.
TelJet of South Burlington is TelJet of South Burlington is partnering with the town to be the wholesaler of the wireless service, according to Greg Kelly, TelJet chief executive officer. A number of wireless Internet service providers (WISPs in industry lingo) will have a chance to compete using TelJet's lines, with the cost to consumers about what they would pay for DSL or cable service, he said.
There is also an initial set-up cost for putting the household antenna system in place. Kelly said the state grant will help offset the typical connection costs paid by users from $400 to $500 to between $100 and $200.
Kelly, a 23-year telecommunications industry veteran who started TelJet's operations in 2002, said the company owns a land-based fiber-optic system that runs through 18 Vermont towns. In 13 of those towns, they have identified good antenna locations and have already leased space at about half of them, he said.
But "Brandon is going to be the first," he said, because of the state money.
In Brandon, a main antenna on a Blue Seal Feeds grain elevator will connect the fiber optic line with the repeater antennas and consumer receivers. "Height is everything" in making possible the line-of-sight wireless transmissions, Kelly said.
The state subsidy is part of a $200,000 pilot program authorized by the Legislature, according to Thomas Murray, deputy commissioner of economic development.
Initially, there were 15 applicants and nine finalists looking to share the funds.
Three other areas got $50,000 grants: Westmore, in northern Vermont near Lake Willoughby; the West Windsor-Reading area; and the South Hero-Grand Isle area.
Businesses, as well as residences, will be able to get wireless broadband, and they will have access to connections as fast as land-line "T-1" systems, Kelly said.
That is an "absolutely essential" economic development tool for Brandon, said Janet Mondlak, executive director of the Brandon Area Chamber of Commerce, who has long pushed for wireless broadband service in town.
The industrial park near Park Village, the former Brandon Training School, is among the areas now without broadband access, Mondlak said.
After the new system is in place, it will be possible to telecommute from a second home or start a rural branch of an information-based company, she said.
Kelly said, "We believe the wireless Internet service providers are going to be more and more substantial players in Vermont in the next few years."
The DRB discussed the application in a closed session last week and has 45 days to issue a permit.
13