Tiny Vermont demonstrates that the Internet access most telephone
and cable companies are selling us is way overpriced for way too
little speed.

Look Out Google Fiber, $35-A-Month Gigabit Internet Comes to
Vermont (by Shalini Ramachandran for WSJ 26 April 2013)

Heads up Google GOOG +1.94% Fiber: A rural Vermont telephone
company might just have your $70 gigabit Internet offer beat.

Vermont Telephone Co. (VTel), whose footprint covers 17,500
homes in the Green Mountain State, has begun to offer gigabit
Internet speeds for $35 a month, using a brand new fiber network.
So far about 600 Vermont homes have subscribed.

Even more interesting:

Photo: Reuters Claude Desmarais and his Belgian draft horse Fred pull fiber optic cables between utility poles in East Burke, Vermont June 24, 2011. Fairpoint Communication hires Desmarais and Fred to pull fiber optic cable through difficult terrain in a effort to bring high speed internet to all of Vermont by 2013. Photo taken June 24.

VTel joins an increasing number of rural telephone companies
who, having lost DSL share to cable Internet over the years, are
reinvesting in fiber-to-the-home networks.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that more
than 700 rural telephone companies have made this switch, according
to the Fiber to the Home Council, a trade group, and Calix Inc.
CALX +3.60%, a company that sells broadband equipment to cable and
fiber operators. That comes as Google’s Fiber project, which began
in Kansas City and is now extending to cities in Utah and Texas,
has raised the profile of gigabit broadband and has captured the
fancy of many city governments around the country.

“Google has really given us more encouragement,” Mr.
Guite said. Mr. Guite said he was denied federal money for his
upgrades the first time he applied, but won it the second time
around—after Google had announced plans to build out
Fiber.

With a combination of fast fiber and fast wireless, we could
have $35/month real broadband Internet (10Mbps and up) right here
in Valdosta, Lowndes County, and south Georgia. Maybe like the
mission of the Vermont
Telecommuncations Authority:

To ensure residences and business in all regions of the
state have access to affordable broadband, mobile voice and data
communications.

Or BroadbandVT.org.
Or Vermont Telephone
Company.

$34.95 or $29.95 when taken with PlainTalk & VTel Long
Distance.

Get blazing-fast speed from our broadband service with speeds up
to 1Gbps over fiber and up to 24Mbps over DSL. 10 email accounts
are included along with our centralized email spam and virus
filter. Coming soon we will also be offering wireless broadband
access using 4G/LTE — at no additional cost!

Where there’s a will there’s a way. In Vermont, IBT reports

they’re using a horse to pull some fiber optic cable. Do our
elected officials and business leaders around here have the will down home here in south Georgia?

-jsq