VTel Wireless is under the gun to to build 152 cell towers and provide free mobile voice service over its wireless broadband internet network to 2,000 customers across Vermont by November 1, or risk refunding millions of dollars to the state, reported the Valley News. VTel received a $2.6 million grant from the state back in 2012, to provide one year’s worth of free wireless service to residents.
The VTel 4G LTE network is built on $117 million in funding awarded in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service under the federal government’s recession-era stimulus spending program. The federal funding included an $82 million grant allocated toward the building of a fiber-to-the-home network to VTel’s customers and a $35 million government loan that went toward the building of 152 cell towers around the state, reported the Valley News.
The first towers went live in 2014, and the company has slowly been adding customers ever since. How many subscribers did VTel amass in almost three years? The exact number is unknown, but in a presentation to the House Committee on Energy and Technology in February, VTel reported it had 3,100 wireless customers across the state: 2,600 were residences and 500 commercial. This represents approximately nine percent of the 33,000 “unserved households” the company identified seven years ago.
VTel said in the February presentation to lawmakers that it “hopes to reach” between 3,500 and 4,000 internet customers with its wireless broadband network by the end of 2017. When VTel received federal stimulus money, it promised to deliver high-speed internet service to “virtually” every unserved home in the state, a pledge also made by then Gov. Peter Shumlin. Recently, in an effort to get more participants enrolled, VTel has sent free cell phones through the mail and emailed other customers informing them that they have been “selected” to receive a new Samsung smartphone.
October 31, 2017
Reader Interactions