Chittenden County CUD Will Soon Emerge From The 'Dark Ages' with Fiber Expansion

Vermont’s Communications Union Districts (CUDs), which were the subject of a recently released ILSR report, continue to make steady inroads in delivering high-quality broadband access to long-neglected rural Vermont residents.

In 2021 the Vermont legislature passed Act 71, ensuring CUDs would play a key role in expanding fiber access in the Green Mountain state. In Vermont, municipally-led CUDs – municipal entities created by two or more towns with a goal of building communication infrastructure – can legally fund needed broadband expansions through debt, grants, and donations – but not taxes, though they themselves are tax-exempt nonprofits.

The CUD model allows municipalities to bond together to tackle broadband network deployments that might otherwise prove too costly or logistically difficult if attempted alone.

The results have been transformative for state residents long underserved or completely unserved by the state’s regional incumbent monopoly providers. Locals at times have likened the transformation to moving out of the “dark ages.”

Much of Vermont’s $150 million ARPA-based broadband package went toward assisting CUDs in a state where 85 percent of municipalities and 90 percent of all underserved locations fall under an existing CUD’s jurisdiction.

Vermont has also been helped by the federal government’s $1.44 billion Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three grant programs through the Digital Equity Act.

CUDs are also eyeing Vermont’s $229 million share of the $42.5 billion federal Broadband Equity, Access And Deployment (BEAD) broadband grant program.

All nine of the state’s CUDs are busy making inroads on fiber deployments, down from 10 CUDs after a recent merger between NEK Broadband and CVFiber, who now collectively provide service to 71 communities across northeast and central Vermont.

Chittenden County prepares to begin construction

In Chittenden County, Vermont, the Chittenden County Communication Union District (CCCUD) was formed in 2022 as a joint collaboration between Essex, Essex Junction, Jericho, Shelburne, South Burlington, Underhill, Westford and Williston.

Frustrated by substandard federal broadband maps, the CCCUD quickly struck a deal with Mission Broadband to map county access.

Last year, CCCUD was awarded a $2.1 million grant from the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) to begin expanding high-speed fiber-optic internet connections to unserved and underserved areas identified by its work with Mission Broadband.

In 2024, CCCUD fielded proposals from a number of different Internet service providers to form a public-private partnership (PPP). That partnership was tasked with providing broadband service to all the unserved and underserved locations in the 8-municipality district. All told, that’s more than 500 locations, according to Chittenden county officials.

In January of 2025, CCCUD and Fidium jointly announced that they’d struck a deal with Consolidated Communications and Fidium to bring fiber access to 150 unserved and underserved locations spread out across five towns in its service territory (Essex, Jericho, Shelburne, Westford and Williston).

The CUD’s $2.1 million grant is expected to fund this first phase of the county’s network build this year.

Phase 2 is dependent on additional federal funding sources (likely including BEAD) but is tenuously slated to begin in 2027.

“We are hopeful that Phase 1 construction will begin in early May,” Chittenden CUD’s Ann Janda told ILSR.

At a recent county board meeting, recorded minutes indicate that engineering plans have been completed for the planned May construction start, with construction likely completed by August. Phase 2’s timing will be heavily dependent on both the fate of the BEAD program under the Trump administration and whether the CUD is able to secure a BEAD grant.

Big upgrade from what came before

CCCUD Chair Michael Vance is quick to note that the telecom market failures across Vermont have impacted rural, urban, and suburban residents alike. Vermont is currently ranked 31st in BroadbandNow’s state rankings of internet coverage, speed and availability.

Many communities in Vermont are dominated by a patchy duopoly consisting of Comcast (Xfinity) and Lumen (Quantum Fiber). This lack of competition results in patchy availability, slow speeds, high prices, and substandard customer service. But Fidium is making steady inroads in Vermont thanks to its partnership with CUDs, and now serves 134,000 homes and businesses.

Fidium’s speeds and pricing should be a significant improvement over what many Chittenden County residents are used to. Especially those stuck on last generation DSL or expensive, usage-capped traditional satellite broadband options.

“While symmetrical 100 megabit per second will be the minimum speed available, all of Fidium’s packages are available up to 2 gigabit per second,” Vance told ILSR. “Pricing will be Fidium’s published pricing and is available on their website.”

According to Fidium’s website a 100 Megabit per second (Mbps) plan is only $30/mo, which includes free installation, unlimited data, and no long term contract required, which is filling an important gap as Vermont state broadband data from 2024 indicates that roughly half of the state lacks access to broadband speed tiers of at least symmetrical 100 Mbps.

Vermont officials have long taken issue with the unreliability of federal broadband maps, which dramatically overstate available service and speeds, while downplaying (or outright ignoring) the high consumer costs due to regional monopolization. Only during recent waves of federal funding have locals began to get a more accurate look at the reality on the ground.

“Chittenden County includes some of the most densely populated and served areas of Vermont, but our communities are not immune to accessibility gaps,” Vance said. “Connecting these homes to Fidium’s fiber network will bring access to the last mile, providing the benefits of high-speed broadband to Vermonters, no matter their address.”

“There is still work to be done, and we look forward to continuing this effort to fill the gaps that remain, but this is a fantastic step toward equitable connectivity.”

This article was published by the Community Broadband Networks Initiative of the Institute for Local Self Reliance on CommunityNets on April 17, 2025, and is reprinted with permission.