Vermont Broadband Map

The Vermont Center for Geographic Information (V.C.G.I.) has been working with money that was granted by the National Telecommunications Information Administration (N.T.I.A.) to map out all of Vermont's Broadband Internet access.  N.T.I.A. wanted to find out where citizens of the United States can find high-speed Internet access and gave V.C.G.I. the money needed to map out Vermont.

N.T.I.A. defines broadband service as any data transfer that can download information faster than 768-kilobites per second, and upload faster than 200-kilobites. According to David Brotzman, Executive Director of V.C.G.I., "This information will provide the state a clear picture of what areas in the state have broadband available, and will allow the state and federal government to direct money be spent to create provider solutions for those unserved and underserved areas. Hi-tech companies want to move to areas where there is broadband, and, in many cases the employees of those companies want to move to areas where there is broadband available."

Broadband has proven to be very useful for public safety across the nation. Hospitals and Law Enforcement Agencies store data digitally, and the ability to send and receive large files over long distances in a short amount of time can be crucial. V.C.G.I. is looking for people to help design and build the website that would work well and be user-friendly. Steve Sharp, Senior Project Manager, knows there will be an abundance of information on the interactive map.

The service will be free to the public when it goes online this summer.

News 7's Dan Hollis has the details.