MONTPELIER, Vt.—A Vermont telecommunications firm is being criticized for sending a letter to schools saying they should sign up for its service or their communities may not get high-speed Internet service.
"It should be noted that making the decision to not participate in the project may, or may not, affect whether or not the fiber optic network is built into your community," says a letter from two senior officials at Sovernet Communications to principals at several Vermont schools.
Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, who shepherded telecommunications legislation that passed this year, called that message blackmail. Others said it heavy-handed.
"They're blackmailing towns by saying that if the anchor institutions (such as schools) don't sign up with Sovernet, they won't serve elsewhere in town," Illuzzi said.
Even one of the letter's authors, Sovernet Vice President Peter Stolley, acknowledged that, "In hindsight, a more carefully worded, targeted letter would have been better."
The dustup comes as Vermont scrambles to spend more than $400 million -- much of it federal stimulus money -- within the next two years to provide faster broadband Internet service to rural communities that currently lack it.
Sovernet, based in Bellows Falls, is a subsidiary of Beverly, Mass.-based Atlantic TeleNetwork, Inc. It won $33 million in federal money last year to build fiber optic networks to deliver high-speed Internet service in seven of the state's 14 counties. Its sales staff has been working to sign up schools -- heavy Internet users that can pay $1,500 or $2,000 a month for high-speed Internet.
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Two state officials involved in telecommunications, Christopher Campbell, executive director of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority, and Karen Marshall, head of the ConnectVT program in Gov. Peter Shumlin's office, defended Sovernet. They said the company was simply trying to gauge where it would be welcome as it tries to use limited federal money.
"There is certainly going to need to be a process of looking at whether community anchor institutions are indicating that they actually intend to use the network," Campbell said. That might result in considering whether some of the funds might be better spent in different locations, he added.
The letter offended some of its recipients.
"I truthfully was very much bothered by the letter," said Nancy Westlund, educational technology coordinator at the Flood Brook Union School in Londonderry. "I did feel a lot of pressure. It's been said that we will affect other people's abilities to get it if we don't come on board."
