When asked if residents have a right to broadband, Connecticut Rep. Kevin Delgobbo replied: “We’re not talking about new and improved soap suds. Broadband is part of people’s lifestyles and regions’ economies.”

    Rhode Island and Connecticut seem to be encountering opposite challenges with service deployment.

    “Is till hear about the complexity of the services and problems with [providers’] ability to get them resolved,” said Delgobbo.

    In Rhode Island, Rep. Peter Kilmartin said residents “like the fact that they get one monthly bill for a service bundle and can make one call if they have technical problems with any services.”

    Vermontis one New England state that believes incentives can be effective in helping provider more broadly deploy services.

    “We just passed a telecom bill that freed up $40 thousand in bonds to provide the infrastructure that companies need to provide services to rural areas,” said Illuzi. The legislator said he’s working with his comrades in New Hampshire and Maine to ensure Verizon’s sale of its operations in their states to Fairpoint does more than replace once telco with another.