A 24 page booklet for Vermont residents learning to use the internet

1. 1
A Woodstocker’s
Guideto the
Internet
Summer2014
Why the Internet is important
A review of current suppliers
What to look for next
Sponsored by
Your Source For Local News And Information
The
Norman Williams
Public Library

2. 2
© 2014 Woodstock Internet Caucus

3. 3
Your choices in Woodstock are determined
by where you live or work. (In addition, the
Norman Williams Public Library offers free
access and resources, described below.)
While there are a variety of Internet service
providers here in town, most of them
serve a part of the town but not the entire
geographic area. You will want to find out
what your choices are and choose from among
those that offer service where you want it.
However, no matter where you live or work
in Woodstock, there is at least one Internet
service provider that you can connect to.
This booklet contains basic descriptions of
the services offered by each of the providers,
as well as how to obtain further information
from them. It also contains descriptions of
each of the technologies used to provide
Internet service, so that you can understand
the relative advantages of each.
YOU WANT TO GET
ON THE INTERNET!
Whether you open your emails once a week, shop using the
Internet or routinely produce online videos for thousands to
watch, the Internet is an increasingly essential part of your
life and will become even more essential in the future. It’s no
wonder that you are interested in participating.
SO
INTERNET
A network of networks,
started in the U.S. 1970s
that now spans almost
the entire world and
has 2 billion users
Once you know what choices you have to connect to the
Internet, it’s useful to assess your needs as a user and choose
the service that meets them. Different services have different
characteristics and associated costs.

4. 4
Average USER You are a regular user of e-mail and of the
World Wide Web. You use Skype to some extent, and you like to
view movies online. You are online a fair part of the day, but much
of your life is spent elsewhere. If so, then you will benefit from
somewhat more than basic service. Depending upon your location,
DSL may or may not meet this need well. If other providers sere your
location, you should compare bandwidth service levels and costs.
CASUAL USER You send and receive e-mail
from time to time, and you may occasionally
get information from the World Wide Web.
You might choose to watch a movie online from
time to time. If so, it’s likely that any service
offered that is better than dialup will satisfy
your needs. Unless you live off the grid, basic
DSL service available through the local wired
telephone company should satisfy your needs.
Other services that are available at your location
may do so also. (See below for free computer
use at the Norman William Public Library.)
Active USER You are a very active
e-mail user, and you consult the World
Wide Web very frequently. You use
Skype to talk with friends, colleagues,
and business partners. You exchange
files of data, including images and video
segments with them. Your interests and
responsibilities require that you spend a
lot of time at your computer. If so, then
you should use a provider who can offer
high bandwidth services who can make
the physical connection with fiber to your
premises or if not fiber, coaxial cable.
Here are some typical profiles of
Internet users and what options such
users might want to consider:

5. 5
Mobile USER You will most likely be
connecting to the Internet with a smart
phone or a smart tablet. You will need to get
your connectivity through an agreement with
a mobile cellular carrier. Two carriers offer
mobile services in Vermont and cover, but
not all, of Woodstock. Some cellular carriers
offer devices that provide both stationary and
mobile access.
SKYPE
A free system for
exchanging text messages
and supporting two-way
video calls using the
Internet
Intensive USER Your business relies upon
the Internet to survive, and you provide some
combination of Web services, online data bases,
and interactive services such as registration,
purchases, and financial transfers. If so, the choice
of supplier will be dominated by a broader range of
concerns. You will want to assess your bandwidth
and reliability requirements, and you may want
to contract for a fixed Internet (IP) address. You
will want to consider the possibility or partially
outsourcing some of your requirements to external
providers. The information in this booklet will help
you but will not address your full range of concerns.
Bear in mind that as your familiarity with the Internet grows
and as more services become available, your use of the
Internet is very likely to increase. As you explore what the
Internet has to offer, it is quite possible that your use will
grow rapidly.

6. 6
In impact, it deserves comparison with other milestones of development
upon which the modern world rests: the internal combustion engine;
the telephone system, electric power, radio, television, air travel,
satellite technology and the computer. It has revolutionized the
creation and distribution of information. Jimmy Wales, founder of
Wikipedia, once said, “imagine a world in which every single person on
the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” We are
well along toward that goal, thanks in part to his significant efforts.
Twenty years since the Internet became really accessible, many of
those of us who are older are not yet comfortable with the culture
of the Internet. It reminds us of an older person using the telephone
in 1900 who would bow while talking with a disembodied voice, in that
we really don’t quite understand exactly what is happening when we
use it. The prolific science fiction writer Arthur Clarke has remarked that
“any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,”
and for some of us, the Internet is still magical. In contrast, those of us
who are younger or are technically oriented are a part of the Internet
culture, and for most if not all young and middle aged households
moving into our area, high bandwidth access to this electronic road is as
essential as the actual roads that we use to go places.
The Internet is becoming the information fabric of the world.
Woodstock cannot afford to be without it, and no person wanting to
succeed in today’s world can ignore it
A huge amount of Internet use in Woodstock now is in online
entertainment and gaming by young people.
But all of us will be invited, incented and then even
required to use the Internet for more and more
essential tasks, such as commercial activity,
continuing education and personal health care.
Increasingly, activities of our daily lives continue
to migrate onto it; for example, education,
medical monitoring, community schedules, etc.
WHY THE INTERNET
IS IMPORTANT
TO WOODSTOCK AND TO YOU

7. 7
In this very short guide you will learn the basics of Internet
technology in Woodstock. You will have a chance to review and
compare the current offerings of our Internet suppliers, as of winter
2014. We expect to be able to update this guide periodically to
ensure that the information presented is current and of use to our
community.
Internet offerings can change significantly over a short time and
without adequate information for two reasons.
One is that, without changing its technology, a supplier may
elect to change its pricing and delivery policies.
The second reason is that the
supplier’s core technology may
change. We know that even
internet-savvy individuals
in town are unaware of
changes in pricing and
delivery terms that tend
to be submerged under
the deluge of supplier
marketing efforts.
WI-FI
A popular wireless commu-
nications protocol that can
connect a wireless access
point in, e.g. your house to
computers within or close to
the house, often referred to
as wireless Internet access.
DIALUP
an old and slow method
of accessing the Internet
through standard
telephone lines
1
2

8. 8
YOUR TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS
In this section, we provide you with a brief
review of Internet technologies, to help
differentiate between basic options ways to
connect to the Internet.
The Internet available to the general public has
existed for twenty years and has gone through
several generations of technology, each one of
which has its own characteristic advantages and
disadvantages. You may have gone online during
each generation, either here in Woodstock or
elsewhere.
In the beginning there was dialup
In the beginning, most people who connected to the Internet did so
by attaching a modem to their computer and dialing on a conventional
phone to an Internet provider’s access point. This was a first method
of attachment, but the bandwidth of the connection was typically slow
and unsuitable for most applications beyond simple emails and text
based searches. Dialup speeds are generally limited to about 56,000
bits per second (56K bps).
What is bandwidth? It’s a term to summarize a complex measurement
of Internet capacity. Basically it refers to the number of bits of
information that can be transmitted over a given physical or wireless
link per second. It’s not the same as speed, since the
electrons or pulses of light all move at roughly
the same speed. Rather, it’s more like the
difference between delivery trucks using
a one lane and a 12 lane road; they may
all be travelling at the same speed,
but the wider the road, the more that
gets delivered during any interval of
time. Suppliers can often provide a
range of bandwidths by using different
technologies and different media to
connect your computer to the Internet.
BANDWIDTH
A measure of the rate
at which an Internet
connection can deliver
information to and
from your home.

9. 9
DSL stands for
Digital Subscriber Line,
a newer and better way
to access the Internet
through standard
telephone lines
Using your telephone line for higher bandwidth
Internet access: DSL
Another technology, developed in the 1990s, using the same fixed
line telephone infrastructure is Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL. This
technology allows your Internet traffic from your
home computer to coexist on the same line and
at the same time with your voice conversations
by using a very high frequency modem and
carrier for the Internet traffic. Many users
in Woodstock currently use DSL service to
access the Internet because they do not
have access to (or do not want or need)
more advanced technologies.
DSL technologies generally guarantee a
bandwidth of at least 750K bps, or more than
10 times the bandwidth available via dialup. The
bandwidth that you are able to get depends primarily on
distance from your computer to the nearest hub of the DSL provider.
It also depends upon the quality of the telephone line from the hub
to your location. For example, copper wire that has been installed for
many years can support DSL service, but at a lower bandwidth than a
connection using new copper wire of the same length; the vintages of
copper wire have different technical characteristics. From the DSL hub
to the global Internet, suppliers install higher bandwidth links for a total
traffic capacity based on relatively high but not maximum demand.
When the demand from all computers connected to a hub exceeds this
capacity, then response time suffers. This is similar to overloads on
the voice telephone network that occur from time to time on Mother’s
Day and when World Series tickets initially go on sale.
Free technical resources Furthering the Norman Williams
Public Library’s commitment to enhancing digital literacy in the
greater Woodstock area, one-on-one technical help is offered
throughout the week by appointment. Technical classes are also
offered periodically on topics such as blogging and downloading
e-books and audio books to various mobile devices. And, through
a generous grant from the Vermont Department of Libraries, it
has videoconferencing equipment to hold meetings or engage in
distance learning using Skype or Google Hangouts in any of the
Library’s meeting rooms.
9

10. 10
Think of trying to get onto a highway during rush hour,
when the access ramps are jammed even though traffic on
the highway is moving. Alternatively, think of times when
the access ramps are wide open but traffic on the highway
is jammed. Internet suppliers are constantly refining their
network operations to accommodate ever-increasing traffic
and shifts in the patterns of demand.
Moving up to coaxial cable and optical fiber
If we move up from DSL to obtain greater bandwidth, we arrive at a
combination of coaxial cable and optical fiber. What we in Woodstock
think of as cable service, such as that offered by Comcast, is in fact a
combination which mixes both technologies of coaxial cable, which
runs on electronic signals, and fiber optic cable, which transmits
information via pulses of light.
Typically fiber optic cable, which has
enormous bandwidth, is used for trunk
routes such as between Rutland and
Lebanon on Route 4, while coaxial
cable “pigtails” connect individual
premises to fiber backbones.
Coaxial cable can provide very high
bandwidth to groups of individual
premises, and the same cable has
the capacity to deliver large groups of
television stations as well as support
voice telephone service.
The next advance, now
becoming available in
surrounding towns such as
Barnard and Bridgewater,
is the 100% use of fiber
optic technology to the
premises
OPTICAL FIBER
very small strands of
glass in a protective
sheath that can transmit
enormous amounts of
information very
quickly.
COAXIAL CABLE
originally widely deployed
for providing cable televi-
sion service, this copper
based cable with a protec-
tive metal sheath can be
used for high bandwidth
Internet connectivity

11. 11
Let’s spend a minute on these two versions (cable/fiber and fiber alone).
Their speeds can run from as low as 3 megabits per second (3Mbps) to
upwards of 100 Mbps, depending on the technology options chosen.
Digital information transmission over optical is inherently faster –
much, much faster – than coaxial cable technology. However, given
clever traffic planning by a Internet service provider using these
technologies provider, the user in Woodstock may experience a hybrid
fiber-coax service such as described above, as if it were a pure 100%
optical fiber based service.
In the long run, we are all better off with a pure optical fiber service,
meaning that our connection with the Internet is pure optical fiber,
from our computers to the global Internet. The problem is, of course,
that installation of land line fiber to all premises is a major investment
of resources, and organizations won’t invest unless there is a business
case to be made for doing so.
Why not fiber now throughout Woodstock?
Fiber runs today along Route 4 and down Route 106 to Reading.
It’s available selectively through some providers downtown, but not
generally outside the village or far from Route 4 or Route 106.
Fiber is expensive to install. The current cost of installing fiber using
existing utility poles is about $30,000 per mile. Labor costs comprise
upwards of three quarters of the cost of installation. If 20 customers
per mile sign up, which is by no means assured, the provider has
invested $1,500 per customer which it needs to get back through a
combination of monthly service charges and a one time installation
fee. Many areas of Woodstock do not begin to approach 20 potential
customers per mile.
The Vermont Standard
(www.thevermontstandard.com)
publishes an e-Edition, allowing
subscribers and occasional
readers to access entire current
and archived issues. It is simple
to use and inexpensive.

12. 12
Needing mobile access?
Many of us already access the Internet through our
smart phones or smart tablets, either solely in
this way or in addition to having access through a
regular computer. Of course, today’s smart phones
and tablets contain the core of a modern computer, so
that it isn’t surprising that they offer many of the
same functions of a modern computer.
Mobile wireless technology will work for
certain people and certain applications.
It also might end up being the most cost
effective solution for some of the town’s
outlying areas, although the hilly terrain
may pose a problem in getting signals
through. Cell phone transmission has
brought the Internet to much of Africa.
If you have ever connected to the Internet
on an urban or inter-city bus, you almost
certainly connected using mobile smart
phone technology.
Using a variety of technologies, Cellular telecom carriers can transmit
information to and from your smart phone or tablet over multiple
channels. The use of mobile technologies to offer Internet service is
growing rapidly and can be useful in obtaining service where no land
line provider exists.
IP ADDRESSES
an Internet address that is
automatically assigned to
yourInternet access device
that allows messages to be
sent from one address to
another

13. 13
In addition to offering direct Internet connectivity for your phone
and tablet, mobile companies generally offer hardware that
converts the mobile signal into an interface, fixed or wireless
that your computer can receive, thus allowing mobile use of your
computer. These devices can also function as converters that can
be used in a stationary location such as a home or business, as long
as the equipment is in a location where it can receive the mobile
telephony signal.
Wireless carriers offer
coverage maps to
show where the signal
should be detectable,
but it’s important to
check this thoroughly.
Pointers to coverage
maps are provided in
the following pages
dedicated to wireless
carriers.
What about fixed wireless?
One option that we think is of some but limited potential is wireless
broadcasting from a fixed base station, or access
point. The Norman Williams Public
Library introduced free wireless
service to the immediate downtown
area by installing a number of
wireless access points in the
area. The response times are
what you’d expect from your
wireless system in your
home or business unless
perhaps during times of
heavy use, since you are
sharing that bandwidth
with others. A major
constraint to extending
such a system is that this
local area networking
technology uses a wireless
signal frequency that is useful
only for about 500 feet from
the base station. Some structures,
especially those using lots of metal,
will block the signal.
Wireless Woodstock
The Norman Williams Public Library and
Haystack Digital provide, as a non-profit
community service, free wireless access for
anyone in the immediate downtown area.
Wireless Woodstock’s webpage connects you
with a wide array of resources, including the
Vermont Standard’s extensive calendar of
events. www.wirelesswoodstock.org.

14. 14
Mobile wireless technology offers some alternatives for
connecting to the Internet. Already many smartphones and tablets
have access to the Internet in large parts of Vermont, and of the world.
Such access may be sufficient for some people, although these devices
have limited capability compared to a computer, and their screens and
keyboards may be more difficult to use.
What about satellite?
There are a number of Internet service providers
that offer connections via satellite.
Transmission by satellite can’t match fiber in terms
of bandwidth. In addition you will need to install a satellite antenna
for downloading information and a more complex one if you want to
upload information to the satellite and to the Internet. Some services
use a satellite link for downloading information and a fixed telephone
line based service for the return path to the Internet. Bandwidths
that can be achieved are a function of the money you spend for
the equipment and the service. In general, for supporting modest
bandwidth connectivity, DSL is likely to be superior to satellite service
in both bandwidth and cost.
If you live off the grid, or if you are in a remote part of town, are a
power user and want to spend a lot of money on special equipment to
boost uploads, go ahead. For the rest of us, the closest we will get to
satellite transmission is likely through Internet access on airplanes.
PhotobyLindaGalvao

15. 15
Marketing and pricing
The decision regarding which Internet service to subscribe to can be
aggravating because of the way in which suppliers package deals with
temporary teaser discounts. Often it becomes difficult to discover
the full range of subscription options from their marketing literature.
Pricing and options can often change and without advance notice.
We have not tried to provide precise service
descriptions or associated costs for several
reasons. First, we don’t want to be in the
position of interpreting existing offerings
ourselves when the individual suppliers
can do a much better job of it themselves.
Second, the retail telecommunications
market is a dynamic one, and service
offerings and prices are likely to change
fairly frequently. Finally, the rate of
technological progress in consumer
electronics and telecommunications is rapid,
and suppliers are likely to take advantage of new
technologies as soon as they believe that the market
is ready for them. Our strategy will be to periodically request any new
information from them that they wish to include in this
guide and to republish the guide periodically. The best
and most current information regarding any specific
service will generally be the supplier of that service.
Consider the typical marketing pitch of the “triple play”
at half price. In this pitch, cable, Internet and voice are
offered as a package at a lower price for the first year,
after which the price is doubled. It’s sometimes confusing to even
find out who is selling “triple play” services. A supplier doesn’t have
to be a typical cable company to offer it. For example, FairPoint,
a conventional phone company, offers a triple play package, but
the cable TV component is subcontracted to satellite provider and
requires installation of a satellite dish to receive the video service.
We hope that this information will help you to understand
the current state of Internet connectivity in Woodstock and
will allow you to make appropriate choices regarding your
connection to the Internet. Please do not hesitate to provide
feedback to us so that future editions of this guide can be
increasingly useful.
WORLE WIDE WEB
An enormous distributed
data base of useful
information, containing
millions of individual
sites, that resides on the
Internet

16. 16
YOUR SERVICE PROVIDER OPTIONS
The following pages provide an introduction to Internet
service providers who are either active in Woodstock, or hope
to enter this Market. This material has been provided by us,
and it contains some basic facts and commentary regarding
each company. We have given the non-wireless providers
an opportunity to make corrections and add material, and if
they have done so, their contribution is so noted. We hope
that the next version of this
guide will contain more
complete information
obtained by them. The
following profiles
were prepared
in Spring, 2014,
from public
sources and
responses to
inquiries.
Free computer use inside the Library
The Norman Williams Public Library also offers
free internet access within the building during
open hours. The public can connect to its network
using their own laptops or mobile devices, or
choose to use one of seven public computers,
each connected to the Internet. A Chromebook
available to library patrons (with a current library
card) for their use within the building.

17. 17
AT&T MOBILITY
Contact information:
(888) 223-2222
Web site
www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/internethomephone.html
Retail store:
1 Airport Road, West Lebanon NH 03784; (603) 276-3676
Service coverage map:
http://www.att.com/maps/wireless-coverage.html#fbid=svPBAAj_fDY
Services offered: AT&T offers Internet access through its mobile
telecomm network that provides wireless coverage to large portions
of the United States. A detailed coverage map can be obtained by
referencing the above web site. If you already have a smart mobile
phone or a tablet that is activated for wireless service using AT&T, you
can obtain access to the Internet using such devices wherever AT&T
mobile coverage is adequate. Parts, but not, all of Woodstock are
served adequately by AT&T.
It is possible to use AT&T wireless service to provide access to the
Internet for a fixed computer in your premises. AT&T offers a device
called AT&T Home Base that bridges the mobile and computer
telecomm protocols. It communicates on one side with the AT&T
mobile network, and other the other side communicates via Wi-Fi to
any Wi-Fi enabled devise within range. The device can be operated
from a wired power outlet or from a battery, so that both fixed and
mobile connectivity are possible.
Mobile bandwidth is scarcer than fixed line bandwidth, so that
obtaining significant connectivity in this manner is very likely to
be metered and is likely to be more expensive than other options.
Nevertheless it remains a possibility that has advantages for certain
locations and for certain kinds of use.

18. 18
COMCAST
Contact information:
(800) COMCAST; (800) 266-2278
Web site
www.comcast.com
Services offered: Comcast is one of the largest, if not the largest,
company in the United States offering fiber and cable-based voice,
video and Internet services. Comcast differentiates its service
offerings between services for the home and services for business.
Comcast offers a large number of cable TV channels and on-demand
TV services, Internet access, and voice telephony using VoIP (voice
over IP) technology. Customers may subscribe to any of these services
in any combination. Comcast generally offers its services at a 50%
discounted price for the first 12 months of service, and then doubles
the initial price for all succeeding months.
Comcast uses a combination of optical fiber and coaxial cable media for
delivering its services. When appropriately configured, the combination
should provide quite satisfactory bandwidth for a wide variety of uses.
Comcast fiber backbone traverses Route 4 and Route 106. Customers who
live moderately close to this backbone will be connected by payment of
a modest installation fee. Comcast will quote connection prices for anyone
in Woodstock; however, the further you are away from their backbone,
the more onerous will be the connection cost. If a compact group of
premises want to be connected, the cost could go down considerably.
There are a variety of opinions regarding how good Comcast’s services
is, from excellent to problematic. Unfortunately, these opinions are
all at the level of hearsay, so that no follow-up analysis has been done
and we have no definitive conclusions. We have no reason to believe
that Comcast’s service is below average, and some of us have had
excellent service.

19. 19
EC FIBER
Contact information:
(802) 763-2262
Web site
www.ecfiber.net
Headquarters:
415 Waterman Road, Royalton, VT 05068; (802) 763-2262
Services offered: EC Fiber is a consortium created by 24 towns in East-
Central Vermont that intends to build a community owned fiber-optic
network to deliver high-speed Internet and voice telephone service to
every home, business, and civic institution in 24 towns in east central
Vermont. Woodstock is one of those towns, and has named George
Sadowsky as its delegate to the EC Fiber Governing Board.
EC Fiber is a startup organization that is financing its activities through
subscriber revenues and private placement notes, to some extent subscribed
to by people in a community for providing service to that community. This
strategy of bootstrap financing was made necessary by the collapse of
the capital markets in September 2008, and has led to considerably slower
growth than was originally hoped for. From its base in South Royalton, EC
Fiber is extending its services incrementally in multiple directions, as quickly
as financial resources and demand permit; a coverage map is on their web
site. By the end of 2014, EC Fiber expects to have about 1,000 subscribers.
Woodstock is not yet served by EC Fiber because of the cost of extending
the network to our town. EC Fiber will soon enter West Windsor, and
fiber extensions from there to the South Woodstock border on route 106
have just been approved by the Vermont Telecommunications authority.
This raises the possibility of EC Fiber being able to enter from the south
in about a year. EC Fiber is also present now in Barnard, but the cost of
extending the network south to Woodstock is prohibitive based upon the
requirement to use underground conduit in the central business district.
We are working actively to solve this problem.
When it happens, EC Fiber service in Woodstock will be a very welcome
addition to the set of Internet service providers who are already active
in the town.

20. 20
FAIRPOINT COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Contact information:
(866) 984-2001
Web site
www.fairpoint.com
Services offered: FairPoint offers DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
Internet services through the area served by its 457 telephone
exchange, which spans most of Woodstock.
The bandwidth that can be offered by DSL technology depends upon
the distance between the subscriber to the service and an intermediate
junction box, often referred to as a point of presence of the carrier.
The junction box is linked with fiber to Fairchild’s office on Golf Avenue,
and from there the connection is to FairPoint’s wide area network and
the global Internet.
Fairpoint offers voice, Internet and ‘cable’ television service. Customers
may subscribe to any of these services in any combination. Voice and
Internet are carried on the same copper wires that are already installed
to your premises, so that no significant installation is required. As we
understand the situation, television is supplied to the premises through
an arrangement with an independent satellite-based supplier, while the
control commands that allow you to manipulate the television services
are carried back to the TV supplier over Fairchild’s land lines. To receive
television service, installation of a satellite receiver is necessary
Fairpoint often offers its services at a 50% discounted price for the first
12 months of service, and then doubles the introductory price for all
succeeding months.

21. 21
SOVERNET, INC.
Contact information:
(802) 463-2111; (877) 877-2120
Web site
www.sover.net
Headquarters:
5 Canal Street. Bellows Falls VT 05101
Services offered: Founded in 1995, Sovernet Communications
provides Internet and telecommunication services to residential
and business customers throughout Northern New England.
Sovernet provides telephone services, Internet connectivity and
bundled services
Although SoverNet has no telecommunications infrastructure of its
own in Woodstock, it provides Internet and telephone services to a
number of customers downtown by leasing infrastructure capacity
for routes leading to its own customers from its competitors. This is
common practice in the telecommunications industry, and does not
by itself imply any diminution in the quality of service received.
We do not have any detailed information on the locations in
Woodstock in which SoverNet has either capacity to connect
customers or whether it intends to invest in its own infrastructure
here. Our sense is that it is not a major supplier of services to the
town, although it does offer them here.

22. 22
VERMONT TELEPHONE COMPANY
(VTEL)
Contact information:
(802) 885-9000
Web site
vermontel.com
Headquarters:
354 River Street, Springfield VT 05156
Services offered: VTel, a local telephone company, has announced
an aggressive campaign to provide fiber to the premises (FTTP)
to the towns in its service area, as well as to blanket the state of
Vermont with a state-of-the-art 4G/LTE wireless network, designed
to bring high-speed broadband Internet to rural Vermonters. VTel
has announced these wireless services in some neighboring towns,
including West Windsor and Reading. Some fiber to the premises has
been installed by VTel in Bridgewater, and residents of Woodstock
living on Curtis Hollow Road and having 692 telephone prefixes may
have fiber connection to the Internet through the Bridgewater project.
As a part of its commitment to the State of Vermont based upon use
of universal service funds, VTel has extended its fiber network east on
U.S. Route 4 to Woodstock Union High School. VTel would very much
like to extend its Internet services further east to Woodstock, but
has no immediate plans to do so. Thus for Woodstock it is a potential
source of Internet connectivity, possibly in the near future depending
upon its investment strategy.

23. 23
VERIZON WIRELESS
Contact information:
603) 298-9900
Web site
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/device/mobile-hotspot
Retail store:
267 Plainfield Road, West Lebanon NH 03784; (603) 298-9900
Service coverage map:
http://vzwmap.verizonwireless.com/dotcom/coveragelocator/
?coveragetype=datacoverage4g
Services offered: Verizon offers Internet access through its mobile
telecomm network that provides wireless coverage to large portions
of the United States. A detailed coverage map can be obtained by
referencing the above web site. If you already have a smart mobile
phone or a tablet that is activated for wireless service using Verizon,
you can obtain access to the Internet using such devices wherever
Verizon mobile coverage is adequate. Parts, but not, all of Woodstock
are served adequately by Verizon.
It is possible to use Verizon wireless service to provide access to the
Internet for a fixed computer in your premises. Verizon offers a family of
devices called Verizon JetPacks that bridges the mobile and computer
telecomm protocols. They communicate on one side with the AT&T
mobile network, and other the other side communicates via Wi-Fi to any
Wi-Fi enabled devise within range. Some of these device can be operated
from a wired power outlet, and others from a battery, andsome from
both, so that both fixed and mobile connectivity options are possible.
Mobile bandwidth is scarcer than fixed line bandwidth, so that
obtaining significant connectivity in this manner is very likely to
be metered and is likely to be more expensive than other options.
Nevertheless it remains a possibility that has advantages for certain
locations and for certain kinds of use.

24. 24
Woodstock Internet Caucus
For more information, contact:
Peter Rousmaniere
pfr@rousmaniere.com
(802) 457-9149
George Sadowsky
george.sadowsky@gmail.com
(802) 457-3370
Photos courtesy of Woodstock Area Chamber of Commerce
Design by Susan Casper
© 2014 Woodstock Internet Caucus