When Pat Cole added “broadband access” to her Internet ad for a vacation rental overlooking Vermont’s Lake Willoughby in Westmore, the number of inquiries about the renovated farmhouse increased.

One guest, an architect, first stayed for 10 days, but now that he can download large files quickly, he can bring his work with him. He’s planning to stay the entire month of February, Cole said.

“There’s nothing like it. I feel fortunate to have electricity most of the time,” Cole said. “To have high-speed Internet in such a remote area is absolutely incredible. It’s good for business, it’s good for pleasure, it’s good for Christmas shopping.”

Cole and hundreds of other rural residents of the Northeast Kingdom now have access to broadband Internet through Island Pond Wireless, a company that offers service to about 600 square miles of northeastern Vermont. The company is expanding its service in Vermont and eventually will move east into New Hampshire.

Island Pond Wireless is a member of the Cloud Alliance, a group of Internet service providers and power companies, working to spread wireless broadband into the nooks and crannies of Vermont where cable television and DSL from Vermont’s telephone companies is unavailable.

“We believe this is the best hope for this region to get broadband in the near future,” said Jake Marsh of Island Pond, who runs Island Pond Wireless.

Some have compared the arrival of high-speed Internet service in Vermont to the arrival of the interstate highway system a half-century ago. High-speed data transmission will enable people to live in the most remote areas of Vermont and, like the architect heading to Westmore this winter, do work from there that previously required them to live in or commute to cities.

About 75 percent of Vermonters now have access to broadband Internet service. But most of those are in larger communities that are served by cable television or telephone-based DSL service.

In Maine, 86 percent of residents have access to broadband Internet. A year ago, Gov. John Baldacci announced an initiative called Connect ME which set a goal of high-speed Internet access for 90 percent of Mainers.

Since that level is nearly obtained, the state is considering raising its goal for access to 95 percent, said Tom Federle, the governor’s point man on broadband access. “We’re striving for universal broadband,” he said.

Nationally, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported in March that 47 percent of U.S. Internet users – 32 percent of American adults – had broadband at home. Forty-one percent of adults had broadband either at home or work. All the numbers were up significantly in a year and expected to rise.

The Federal Communications Commission lists total connections per state, but not percentages. The totals at the end of 2004 were 143,000 in Maine, 216,000 in New Hampshire and 72,000 in Vermont.

The states and federal government recognize the need to provide everyone who wants it with reasonably priced broadband service. One piece of that project under way now in Vermont is to build a $10 million, 375-mile fiber-optic system throughout northern Vermont that will aid that effort.

Just last week, Sen. Patrick Leahy announced a $500,000 federal grant to help set up that network, which can be used by local Internet providers.

The Cloud Alliance is one of a number of organizations across the state that are trying to get two-way broadband signals into the nooks and crannies of the state.

They are all using a combination of state grants, bank loans and personal investments to get the systems up and running.

“Thank God for the people at Passumpsic Savings Bank,” Marsh said. “I have put my house on the line to build this.”

Marsh said his business still hadn’t reached the point where he’s made a return on his investment, but he expects to get there within six months or so.

The key to wireless broadband is the receiver, which looks something like a satellite dish and needs to be in a line of sight of the transmission tower, even if it’s 25 to 30 miles away.

It’s relatively easy to get a signal to customers who live at higher altitudes.

“There are hardly 100 acres that are flat,” Marsh said “We need to feed the valleys. … Compared to deploying cable and fiber, it’s less expensive.”

And the key to offering service to Westmore was a state grant to the town. It helped Island Pond Wireless erect a 65-foot-tall tower in town that transfers the signal onto a wired network.

The Westmore service is thanks to one of four $50,000 state broadband grants the Legislature appropriated in 2004.

“It goes to show what a small amount of capital investment by the state will bring in from the private sector,” said state Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans.

Island Pond Wireless is in the process of expanding north to the border communities of North Troy, Norton and Derby and west to Lowell. The Cloud Alliance is also set to turn on a tower in Plainfield that provides service to hundreds of central Vermont residents.

The service can’t get to Lowell soon enough for Phyllis Besch. Her home business, RFP2, does marketing consulting for national construction companies and design build firms.

She moved to Vermont from California 18 months ago to be near her elderly mother. She likes living in the country and working at home, but she’s still restricted by a dial-up Internet connection.

“Some of my clients are in California. We communicate through e-mail. Some days you just tear your hair out,” Besch said. “I can’t charge my clients more because it takes an hour and a half to download something.”

Marsh said help was on the way. He’s in the process of getting the permits for a tower in Lowell.

“I would tend to say if there isn’t any major opposition, we would be able to complete permitting before the end of March,” Marsh said.