The Adamant Coop is Vermont’s earliest cooperative grocery store, dating to Depression days in 1935. Now, it’s the host of our latest repeating station. Some villagers already have access to Cloudburst service at their homes. What’s more, Cloud Alliance is providing a free hotspot to the Coop. Sitting by the old wood stove, community members are able to zoom around the world using Cloudburst, at no charge.

How do they compare with Cloud Alliance? You can see for yourself on the updated, cost-comparison page. The short version: Compared to the cost of our Cloudburst service, WildBlue’s wildly more expensive rates make you feel blue; HughesNet’s net cost still leaves you feeling used; and, despite the recent reductions, StarBand’s rates are still beyond this world, so you better send the band home.

And, the limitations of satellite Internet service haven’t improved, at all. You can read all about those, too, on our service-comparison page. The short version: no VoIP, no VPN, very slow uploads, monthly download limits, stops dead in heavy rains, and, of course, high cost!

The numbers in the names give a clear indication of the relative speeds of the different plans, representing the typical maximum download speeds in Mbps (megabits per second). With this update, we are introducing new, faster speeds to our Business Plan line-up. Now, you can break through the 2 Mbps barrier!

Of course, maximum allowable speeds are not always attainable, due to local configurations, distance from our base and repeating stations, and network and Internet traffic loads. In order to enhance your experience, we’ve increased our purchased bandwidth by 50% from our “backbone” portal to the Internet (Charter Communications). This means there is more speed to share with other Cloud Alliance subscribers. We’ve reset our access point radios to allow greater minimum speeds, as well.

You can check out the new line-up by clicking on the Subscription Rates page.

We are now scheduling installations around Calais, in sight of this station. We are gratified that numerous locations are successfully receiving signal through the trees, too.The next big leap will come as we build other stations in Calais, fed by this new “foothold.” Four other sites are identified and will be built soon.

We are training extra installers, so that we may schedule more installations in the coming weeks. Phone calls and emails are going out to line up the next wave of installations. We will be traveling the roads with our survey trailer to determine where the signal is strongest. With over 500 families and businesses signed up on our website, we have our work cut out for us to meet the demand.

It was difficult but exciting work for the construction crew. The best part was looking out at the panoramic view from atop these two 65 foot silos. With the support structures and the 11 foot “whip” antennas, the total height is going to enable Cloud Alliance to deliver strong signal to many buildings we couldn’t serve before. Come by and check out the newest wireless nodes in the CA system. One is at the Newton Farm on Hollister Hill Road in Marshfield, and the other is at the Bair Farm on Center Road in East Montpelier. We think you’ll agree that these additions are an unobtrusive modernization of the Vermont farmscape.

Equipment is on order, and we expect to begin construction within a few weeks. Immediately thereafter, we will be contacting numerous registrants to schedule installations at their places. We aren’t stopping there, either. We are beginning the process to establish repeaters in Cabot, Woodbury, and Middlesex in order to increase the signal area of the first six towns we’ve committed to serving: Marshfield, Plainfield, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex, and Worcester. We are also planning to use intermediary repeaters and “mesh” (more about that in a future post) to serve the harder-to-reach residents in these towns.

We continue to steadily add satisfied subscribers in the existing signal area. If you haven’t registered, yet, now is the time! We will contact all who are in the newly expanded signal area, as soon as we are able to proceed with installations there. It’s easy! Just click on Register to join the Cloud Alliance now.

PLAINFIELD, Vt.—High-speed Internet service is finally reaching rural parts of Plainfield, Marshfield, East Montpelier and Calais.

Cloud Alliance, a Vermont-based Internet provider, began wireless broadband service to sections of the four communities on Thursday. The long-awaited project, which will expand to include other towns in central Vermont, offers Internet access at more than ten-times the speed of dial-up service.

“Lightning-fast Internet access is at long last reaching our dirt roads and remote hillsides,” said Jake Marsh, co-founder of Cloud Alliance. “Thousands of Vermonters will soon be experiencing the Internet’s full potential.”

Thursday’s launch of the Internet service comes as many rural sections of Vermont struggle to keep pace with urbanized areas in the information age. Cloud Alliance’s service is wireless; it works by transmitting the broadband service over radio-frequency waves from a central location to homes and businesses across the region. The broadband signal is received using a small dish (like satellite television). No cell towers are required for a wireless Internet system.

The first customer installations are now underway. Early supporters of the project from the four communities, who agreed to pay for a year of service in advance, will be among the first subscribers. Cloud Alliance will gradually expand service to more customers in January. The coverage area will eventually reach Worcester, Middlesex, and beyond.

“Anyone interested in fast Internet service should register at our web site: www.cloudalliance.com,” said Tom Stillwell, a Cloud Alliance spokesman. “This allows us to determine if a home or business can pick up the wireless signal. And it helps us determine where to focus expansion efforts.”

Cloud Alliance includes among its partners Stowe-based PowerShift Online Services (www.gopowershift.com), which is expanding its array of broadband services, and Island Pond Wireless (www.islandpondwireless.com), which already offers high-speed wireless service in the Northeast Kingdom.

Thursday’s service launch culminates a two-year effort by a citizen’s group, the Marshfield-Plainfield Community Internet Project. With support from the selectboards in the two towns, the group recruited Cloud Alliance after a competitive bidding process. The effort soon grew to other nearby central Vermont communities.

“We couldn’t wait for the politicians and the huge telecommunications companies to bring us broadband service,” said Michael Birnbaum, a member of the Marshfield-Plainfield group. “So we engineered a home-grown solution.”

“We’re tired of being told by other companies that we can’t have broadband access in certain parts of town,” said Scott Bassage of Calais.

The expansion of broadband service to many rural places has proven difficult. Many telephone and cable Internet companies won?t serve rural areas because of low population densities. So Plainfield and Marshfield, working with Cloud Alliance, solicited broad support for the project.

Washington Electric Cooperative has agreed to guarantee, or back, half the value of a $50,000 loan from Community Capital of Central Vermont, a non-profit lending arm of the Central Vermont Community Action Council. WEC will also administer a $50,000 grant toward the project from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which was passed through the Montpelier-based Vermont Broadband Council.

“This project would not have been possible without all the support we’ve seen from the community,” said Tom Joyce, Cloud Alliance co-founder. “We can proudly say that central Vermont is headed towards a brighter and more technologically advanced future.”

Bill Powell, WEC’s director of products and services, describes the project as “a great opportunity to help our membership in these towns gain high-speed Internet access for the first time.”

Check out these pictures from Wedneday morning as work neared completion.

Crew using a lift to install pole equipment

Transmission equipment getting installed