Hanover County, Va., has announced the “Connect Hanover” initiative to make broadband services available to residents living in unserved areas of the county with the help of Rappahannock Electric Cooperative.
County Administrator John A. Budesky announced that after a competitive process, Hanover has selected All Points Broadband to identify those areas of the county that lack access to a broadband connection of at least 25 Mbps/3 Mbps. All Points Broadband will assist the county in developing and implementing a strategy to deliver broadband access with minimum speeds of 100 Mbps/100 Mbps to all remaining unserved areas.
All Points Broadband is partnering with Dominion Energy Virginia and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, who will lease “middle-mile” fiber capacity to All Points and leverage the initiative to improve the operation and efficiency of their electric grids.
Hanover and its partners will focus on areas that are currently unserved, such as those where residents must use satellite, DSL, cellphones or mobile hot spots, which do not provide adequate speed and data for today’s applications.
“We are proud to partner with Hanover and All Points Broadband to help bridge the rural digital divide. REC is committed to improving the lives of the residents and businesses that we serve and improving broadband access certainly achieves that mission,” said John Hewa, president and CEO of REC.
By the end of August, All Points Broadband will develop a network design for presentation to the Board of Supervisors and approval in September. The county will apply for grants through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative in September.
— Report by Casey Hollins, Managing Director – Communications and Public Relations, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative