Judge’s Ruling Ensures Some Vermont Residents Won’t Face Internet Outage
A district representing 31 towns is planning to switch to a new, nonprofit operator for its fiber network.
WASHINGTON, August 13, 2025 – A federal judge issued a ruling Monday that she said would prevent thousands of rural Vermonters from facing internet outages over a contract dispute.
Great Worker Internet, or GWI, has been disputing a coalition of Vermont towns’ plan for transitioning their fiber network to a new nonprofit operator started by coalition board members, arguing in court that it isn’t obligated by its current contract to help the nonprofit. There’s bad blood between GWI and the coalition, which for months have been locked in legal battles around the plan to ditch GWI.
District Judge Mary Kay Lanthier sided against the company Monday, saying GWI had to grant access to ECFiber communications plants and data.
GWI has been operating the network, called ECFiber, for the East Central Vermont Telecommunications District since 2023. The ISP services about 10,000 homes and businesses in the district, composed of 31 member towns.
GWI’s contract is set to expire at the end of the year, and amidst disagreements over the terms of a renewal, the district formally voted in April to stop negotiating and transition to a nonprofit operator called VISPO. GWI had already been suing the district chair, F.X. Flinn, who was involved with other district board members in creating VISPO the month before, and accusing him of trying to poach GWI’s contract.
The company added ECFiber to the suit and argued GWI wasn’t obligated to work with VISPO on the transition plan, which GWI said would amount to training a newly formed competitor. In June the district asked the court to force GWI to work with VISPO and the district to prepare for a smooth transition.
Lanthier agreed to do so on Monday, writing the district would likely be harmed by an inevitable service outage if no transition plan was in place, and that the district was likely to be successful in its claim GWI breached its contract by stonewalling the transition.
“If a transition policy is not implemented prior to the end of the current contract, there will be significant disruption in the ability of the District to provide communication services to its customers,” Lanthier wrote. “A loss of goodwill and customers would certainly result if subscribers could not rely on the District's provision of uninterrupted network service.”
Lanthier wrote that GWI wouldn’t have to train VISPO employees – the nonprofit is trying to staff up quickly – but that the company had to allow access to ECFiber buildings or systems. She also ordered the district to pay outstanding invoices it owes to GWI.
Flinn said in a statement that the district’s leadership “breathed a huge sign of relief on getting this news.” He said ECFiber’s “status as more of a utility than a business” was threatened by the terms GWI had proposed for a new contract.
GWI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company is still suing Flinn and the district, seeking monetary damages over the company’s replacement.
“The granting of preliminary relief, in this case, will not render a trial on the merits meaningless,” Lanthier wrote. “If GWI is successful in its underlying claim or in defending against the District's counterclaims, they will be able to obtain the monetary relief they seek in their initial complaint.”
GWI also runs municipal networks for two other unions of towns, called communications union districts under Vermont law.
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