(Originally Published in The Burlington Free Pres 2/23/2003)

Even if you don't know a computer chip from a cow chip, the guys at Silicon Dairy can help you.

These four techies say it's time for Vermonters to have more say in who provides their link to the Web, and they intend to milk the Green Mountain State's interest in the Internet for all its worth.

Call it Vermont economic patriotism, or the bucking of a trend. These Burlingtonians are bent on proving they have a service Vermonters want and will support.

Silicon Dairy, the state's newest Internet service provider -- or ISP -- is up and running from its Queen City hub at the former Dockside Restaurant on Battery Street. Its creators plan to keep Web surfing revenues from migrating out of state while also providing quality service.

Last year, the people behind Silicon Dairy, founded a year ago as a Web design firm, decided to start offering Internet dial-up access partly because of their own experience with what was available, partner Dan Erickson said.

The partners, average age 31, previously worked at Together.net, a Burlington ISP that was purchased by MediaOne.com in Reston, Va., in 1999, which in turn was acquired by national giant Earthlink, based in Atlanta, in 2000.

Erickson said a company's location can have an impact on the local economy. For example, Together Networks had 65 employees doing everything from sales to providing customer support when it was acquired by OneMain. Earthlink has no call center in Burlington and uses foreign contractors for some of its customer support, according to company spokesman Dan Greenfield.

"For e-mail queries, you may reach India," he said.

Earthlink, which has 5 million subscribers, can provide good service to Vermont even without a local call center, Greenfield said.

"We won a J.D. Power award for customer satisfaction in 2002," he said. "For many judges, we are the top choice in customer service."

Foreign competition

Such foreign competition has made Silicon Dairy's work harder, Erickson said.

"It costs tens of thousands to set this up," he said. "Customers expect lower fees."

The company is paying for itself with sales revenues and personal savings, not bank loans.

Silicon Dairy will fight for its share of customers with lower prices for its service, charging $15 per month per account with add-ons such as multiple e-mail accounts and chat rooms, Erickson said. Most ISPs in Vermont cost about $20 a month.

"We have built a user-friendly service. We are about building a local online community, a virtual town green," Erickson said. The company also offers local access numbers in every town in the state, he said.

In its ads, the company is targeting people Erickson describes as "down home and folksy, tech savvy; and your neighbor with a high-quality, Vermont-crafted product."

The company will also tap into what it hopes is growing distrust of big corporations. "People are getting more afraid of larger companies," said partner Shane DeRidder.

Local advantage
Peter Stolley of Sovernet, a Bellows Falls-based ISP with 22,000 subscribers, sees an advantage in being local.

"We think we are more in touch with our customers," Stolley said. "We see them on the street and they tell us their problems and what they like about our service."

Steve Grimm of PinCrafters, a custom lapel pin maker in Williston, also believes in being local.

"It's important to try and support small local businesses, being a small businessman myself," Grimm said.

Grimm uses Silicon Dairy in his home in Ferrisburg, and said he decided to switch about six weeks ago because the company had done Web design work for his company.

"It's kind of a loyalty thing," he said.

Greenfield said that there are advantages to going big.

"There's is a trade-off whether you need to speak to someone locally or someone who can meet your needs," he said, adding his company has the resources to provide innovations that might not be available from smaller companies.

"We have local dial-up numbers nationally," he said. "Does your local ISP provide that?"


Local competition

Local ISPs already in the game differ on whether there's still room for more competitors like Silicon Dairy.

"People look for varying things from their ISP. Not all ISPs provide everything a person wants or needs," Stolley said. "We try to find our niche. Their niche will be different."

Joe Allen at Powershift, a Stowe-based ISP with 6,000 subscribers, isn't so sure about competition.

"Nobody wants more competition," he said. "It's not going to help any of the small people, but I think they are targeting the AOL and Earthlink customers."

Allen said service is a problem all ISPs face.

"People want to speak to someone right away," he said. "Sometimes we're flooded and people can't talk to us immediately."

Pam Anderson of Swanton became a Silicon Dairy subscriber recently after having trouble with her former dial-up provider.

Anderson said she heard about Silicon Dairy on the radio and liked the price and service. She believes local ISPs can find a market especially in areas like Franklin County where high-speed connections aren't available.

"We were having problems with connections and the service wasn't that good," she said. "It was very easy to connect to SD and the one small problem I had they walked me right through it."