ECONOMY

Virginia is trying to get broadband to 162,000 locations without it. Old utility poles may get in the way.

Virginia has $750 million in federal funding for expanding broadband. Delays in making hundreds of thousands of utility poles ready for high-speed fiber could threaten funding.

by Tad Dickens
January 3, 2024



Crews work on an expansion of Verizon's broadband network in Bedford County. Photo courtesy of John Putney.

Hundreds of thousands of utility poles, hundreds of millions in funding and increasingly tight deadlines are part of Virginia’s quest to bring broadband to far-flung rural locations. ... The commonwealth has been among the nation’s leaders in deploying internet, state leaders and observers say. But the goal of bringing universal high-speed access — with lots of federal and state money in play — is facing delays.

The latest delays center on stringing broadband fiber across electric utility poles, some of which are so out-of-date that they need to be replaced. Issues between internet service providers and pole owners include how much the work will cost and who will pay for it.

While the state supplies the money, funneling about $750 million to broadband in 2022 alone, it has no legal standing to play referee between the internet service providers (ISPs) and the pole owners. Here’s the dichotomy: The ISPs’ primary task is to get the lines to the people, but electric utilities say their key focus is on providing safe and reliable power.

That difference is causing slowdowns with installing aerial wire, in particular. Throw the logistics of pole updates and workforce shortages into the mix, and Virginia officials are worried about whether they’ll get broadband fiber to all of the estimated 162,000 still-unserved locations before the end of 2026, when federal COVID-19 relief funding will expire. Unspent money would go back to the federal government.

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Source: House of Delegates Appropriations Committee report.

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TAD DICKENS
tad@cardinalnews.org
Tad Dickens is technology reporter for Cardinal News. He previously worked for the Bristol Herald Courier... More by Tad Dickens