News : VMEU and iVinton progress update

Tom Richtsmeier, VMEU general manager

With a lot of help from Vinton Municipal Electric Utility’s General Manager Tom Richtsmeier, iVinton is making progress toward establishing a local telecommunications system.

At a recent meeting the VMEU board unanimously agreed to have Tom begin scheduling phone interviews with companies interested in completing the next phase, which is a feasibility study. “The feasibility study is really of two parts,” according to Tom, “we need a “blueprint” of what we think should be constructed, and then we need a financial analysis to determine whether a system of the kind we envision will be economically viable.”

Tom, and Kurt Karr, representing iVinton, have conducted interviews of potential consulting firms and will continue conducting interviews through the following weeks. The two are working to present their findings to the VMEU board regarding the capabilities of the firms they interview and the VMEU board will select a short list of firms to move to the next round of interviews. The plan is to schedule joint meetings with the VMEU board and the volunteers of iVinton to make final selections.

“It seems like it’s been slow progress and we’ve all had members of the community ask us if progress was being made,” says Kurt Karr, “but I want to compliment Tom and the VMEU board for their commitment and determination to move forward with this phase of the project. This is a complex and expensive undertaking and we all want to make certain we’re making all the right moves.”

Most of the firms interviewed have said it usually takes about two years from completion of the feasibility studies to construction of the entire network. The goal is to have a high speed broadband fiber network available for every home and business in the community. Subscribers would be able to purchase telephone, video and internet services from the local company.

The first study to be completed will be an engineering study. Somewhat like a blueprint for a home, the engineering study is to determine what should be built to meet the needs of the community. The second involves using the cost estimate of the engineering study to develop a financial estimate.

“Of the two, the engineering study is probably the easiest to complete,” says Kurt. “The economic study needs to take into account the current providers of these services in the community, our community’s income level, the likely number of subscribers as well as estimates of the types of service the customers will subscribe to. After the study is completed iVinton wants to survey our community to provide another level of assurance that the estimates are as accurate as they can be.”

Typical costs of a thorough feasibility study for a community of Vinton’s size range from a low of $40,000 to a high of $70,000. In the low range are companies that use broad averages, and at the higher range companies use more precise data to make their forecasts.