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MONTPELIER â How might a bill being drafted in a state House of Representatives committee succeed where other initiatives failed in finally bridging Vermontâs digital divide?
The game-changing element, according to the effortâs supporters, comes down to an essential Vermont quality: self-government, in the form of locally chartered, volunteer-staffed Communications Union Districts (CUDs), empowered by state law to behave as municipal utilities in finding solutions to the lack of high-speed service in rural areas.
The bill, which is being written by the state House Committee on Energy and Technology, would give a newly-created public authority the ability to lend funds to CUDs â the local government entities authorized by an act of the Legislature in 2019 to tackle a digital access gap affecting about one out of every five Vermonters.